As a branch of Christianity, Catholicism emphasises the doctrine of God as the 'Holy Trinity' (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Many Irish accept the authority of the priesthood and the Roman Catholic Church, which is led by the Pope. According to legend, St. Patrick brought Christianity to the country in 432 CE.
Catholic Church
Christianity had arrived in Ireland by the early 5th century, and spread through the works of early missionaries such as Palladius, and Saint Patrick. The Church is organised into four provinces; however, these are not coterminous with the modern civil provincial divisions.
Introduction of Christianity
Patrick brought the faith to Ireland, but it was already present on the island before Patrick arrived. Monasteries were built for monks who wanted permanent communion with God. The lengths they went to for tranquility are evident from the monastery of Skellig Michael.
It is believed that St. Patrick arrived in Ireland in 432 AD. At that time most of the people believed in pagan gods. However, many people in Ireland soon changed to Christianity when they heard the gospel that Patrick and others told them.
Celts in pre-Christian Ireland were pagans and had gods and goddesses, but they converted to Christianity in the fourth century. Q: Where did Celts originally come from? The Celts are believed to come from Central Europe and the European Atlantic seaboard, including Spain.
Patrick brought Christianity to the country in 432 CE. It is said that St. Patrick used the three-leaved clover (shamrock) to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans. The shamrock thus reflects the deep connection between Catholicism and the Irish identity.
They are the Sidhe (pronounced “shee”) – mystical fairy-like people who supposedly inhabited Ireland prior to the arrival of the Celts (the Milesians). The Tuatha de Dannan are credited with naming Ireland.
Some deities were worshipped only in one region, but others were more widely known. Deities found in many regions include Lugus, the tribal god Toutatis, the thunder god Taranis, the horned god Cernunnos, the horse and fertility goddess Epona, the divine son Maponos, as well as Belenos, Ogmios, and Sucellos.
It is believed that St. Patrick arrived in Ireland in 432 AD. At that time most of the people believed in pagan gods. However, many people in Ireland soon changed to Christianity when they heard the gospel that Patrick and others told them.
Patrick was a 5th-century missionary to Ireland and later served as bishop there. He is credited with bringing Christianity to parts of Ireland and was probably partly responsible for the Christianization of the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. He is one of the patron saints of Ireland.
In the case of Irish nationalism, the Catholic Church became a powerful political actor because of its desire to resist the attempt to convert the Irish masses to Protestantism that began in earnest in the early nineteenth century21.
King Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church is one of the most far-reaching events in English history. During the Reformation, the King replaced the Pope as the Head of the Church in England, causing a bitter divide between Catholics and Protestants.
Who were the Protestants? Most came to Ireland as settlers in the various plantations, or settlements. During the early seventeenth century King James I (VI), a Stuart, initiated the massive plantation of Ulster, the northernmost province of Ireland. Settlers were primarily Lowland Scots.
Various rules were created to suppress the Catholics in order to make sure they did not rise above the British power as they attempted in the Williamite Rebellion in 1688 (Franks n.p.) While the enforcement of the Penal Laws resulted in poverty across the Irish state and consequently lead to emigration, it also created ...
Although Ireland has been Catholic since the 5th Century, the church's development as an institution was a product of the 19th Century and the religious renaissance that followed Catholic emancipation by the British Parliament in 1829.
Ireland has two main religious groups. The majority of Irish are Roman Catholic, and a smaller number are Protestant (mostly Anglicans and Presbyterians). However, there is a majority of Protestants in the northern province of Ulster. More Catholics than Protestants emigrated to New Zealand.
Paganism. Before Christianization, the Gaelic Irish were polytheistic or pagan. They had many gods and goddesses, which generally have parallels in the pantheons of other European nations.
The authority of Rome is often among the main reasons converts leave Protestantism. Even for those who never visit Vatican City—whose experience is limited to the ordinary life of a local parish—the quest for magisterial certainty and substance is cited as a chief reason for Rome-ward journeys.
Unwilling or unable to missionize among the Saxons in England, Briton refugees and missionaries such as Saint Patrick and Finnian of Clonard were then responsible for the Christianization of Ireland and made up the Seven Founder Saints of Brittany. The Irish in turn made Christians of the Picts and English.
Today, the term 'Celtic' generally refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany; also called the Celtic nations. These are the regions where Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent.
As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global population, known as Hindus. Hinduism has been called the world's oldest religion still practised, though some debate remains.
Druids were polytheistic and had female gods and sacred figures, rather like the Greeks and Romans, but their nomadic, less civilised Druidic society gave the others a sense of superiority. This renders some of their accounts historically uncertain, as they may be tainted with exaggerated examples of Druidic practices.
They were also found to have most similarity to two main ancestral sources: a 'French' component (mostly northwestern French) which reached highest levels in the Irish and other Celtic populations (Welsh, Highland Scots and Cornish) and showing a possible link to the Bretons; and a 'West Norwegian' component related to ...
From as far back as the 16th century, historians taught that the Irish are the descendants of the Celts, an Iron Age people who originated in the middle of Europe and invaded Ireland somewhere between 1000 B.C. and 500 B.C. That story has inspired innumerable references linking the Irish with Celtic culture.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the term "Black Irish" referred to Irish people with black hair and dark features who were considered to be descended from Spanish sailors as depicted in Black Irish (folklore).