Census 2011 - Changing but staying the same

The Census 2011 details published yesterday revealed a changed and changing Ireland. There are more of us — 4.58m, up 8.2% since 2006 — than at any time since just after the Great Famine.

Today, our society is far more diverse than imagined, even though 84% of us still describe ourselves as Catholic, representing an increase of almost 5%. This was driven primarily by Eastern Europeans moving here and a high birth rate, in European terms at least.

Though the majority of us declare our Catholicism, it might be difficult to have that statistic endorsed if the criteria laid down by Rome’s curia were strictly applied. It must be assumed that a great number of people who practise as à la carte Catholics have described themselves as such because the changing kaleidoscope of Irish family life includes so many arrangements unrecognised, if not opposed, in Catholic practice.