Berkley Center

Before coming to Ireland I knew that it would a predominately Catholic country, but I did not realize how much the Church impacted everyday life in Ireland. In all of my classes, even a nursing class that I am enrolled in, we have mentioned the Church in at least one of our class discussions. Some people even say that there is still not an absolute separation of church and state in Ireland.

My first experience with how important the church was to most Irish people was the first Sunday after I arrived here. My roommates and I decided to go get brunch, but we didn’t have a particular place in mind. We left the apartment around 11 a.m., which in the United States would not be that early, and everything was closed. The city seemed like a ghost town. We decided to walk all the way to the main street, and even there we seemed to be the only people out. We decided to go home, but we were confused why everything would be closed.

The next Sunday the same thing happened, when we looked online to order take-out food nothing was open until at least 3 p.m. or later. Confused and frustrated we decided to ask one of the security men in our apartment building. He proceeded to tell us that all the shops and most restaurants are closed because of church on Sunday. The mornings are left for everyone to go to Sunday Mass, and it is not expected that anything is open until at least 12 p.m. Even the convenience store across the street from our apartment was closed!

Just last week we had a discussion in a class that I am enrolled in titled "Foundations for Midwifery." It is an introductory level nursing class, and all of my Irish peers are on a path to be nurses. We had a discussion on breast-feeding and all the positive reasons why it is better for the child and for the mother to breast-feed. My teacher went on and on about it, and I was shocked that when she opened the floor to discussion how many of the mothers in the class did not breastfeed. The young girls in the class also seemed very foreign the idea of breast-feeding. My teacher went on to explain that many mothers here don’t, and this is largely due to the Church. Many people feel uncomfortable with breastfeeding because there may be times that you have to be in public, and this is not seen as acceptable. Abortion is also illegal in Ireland and that may largely have to do with the influence of the Church.

The Church has an influence on the life of the Irish. Just yesterday we had a cab driver that loved to talk, and he went on to explain that he thinks the Church is the main reason why Ireland may be behind in many aspects of government. I can’t be sure how true that statement was, but I do agree that the church is still a main part of Irish culture.