While I am not normally one that likes to eat my own words so to speak, I have to say that I was surprised last Wednesday to see so many people in Dublin City Centre with ashes on their foreheads. Being the not-so-devout Catholic that I am, I had also happened to forget that it was Ash Wednesday, cue the look of dawning realisation which appeared on my face in the middle of Grafton St. What interested me about the day was the fact that so many people were oblivious to the crosses that they were displaying. 

The cross is used on our foreheads as a sign that we repent and are 'carrying our cross' out of the church and into the world. Yet everyone I seen on the streets that day looked like they had totally forgotten that it was the beginning of a forty day diet which Catholics undertake, both in preparation for Easter and as a way of spiritually “joining” Jesus with the fasting and meditation he did in the wilderness. Yet it was quite strange to see different nationalities partaking of this ritual also as I observed both Asians and Africans bearing the ashes. While I have no idea as to their nationality, they could be born and reared in any of the counties around Ireland, it was nice to see how Ireland has become an extended community and that religion does not pay any heed to race or origins.

But it was very obvious that the majority of people in Dublin did not attend the traditional Ash Wednesday mass, 30 or 40 years ago the ratio would look the opposite way. There would be a higher number of people with the ashes than without. Indeed, I even over heard one child whispering to her mother "Look at the man with the dirty face, Mammy." Innocence maybe, but it tragically reflects the steep slope Ireland is facing regarding religion.

Religion as it currently stands

Like the famous movie quote, religion in Ireland is currently as varied as 'a box of chocolates'. When you go out socialising on a Saturday night you are just as likely to see a Jew or Muslim as a Catholic. Although, thats if you can even tell them apart, which is an achievement in itself.

Yes, the Irish have come a long way in regards to religion and now that our opinions are starting to change, do you think we will ever see religion having the same control over the population as it once had?

There has not been such a bleak outlook for the Irish Catholic faith since the plantation times, where even then, masses were said regularly at certain designated 'holy sites' or mass rocks'. The Irish were renowned for their devoutness and we even earned the title of 'The Island of Saints and Scholars'. But what has happened to that Ireland? How have we managed to lose our faith in so short a period of time?

Only the older people and the devout attend weekly mass any more. Many now simply 'don't have the time' or see it as a yearly pilgrimage to be made at Christmas. Bishops and priests have their work cut out for them if they want to reach out to the young people.

The generation before me, the older middle-aged lets say, are still clinging on with all their might to their religion. They don't want to give up on it as a lost cause. Yet they are fighting a losing battle. How many young people go to mass on a regular basis? I can guarantee that it is not a high percentage.

Despite being raised a Roman Catholic myself, I personally have no time for religion. Its' simply boring to me. And I am not usually one to have a short attention span. Yet, if given the choice of staying in bed or going to mass on a Sunday morning.......I know which one I would choose.