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.
After a pagan past of Antiquity, missionaries, most famously including Saint Patrick, converted the Irish tribes to Christianity in quick order, producing a great number of saints in the Early Middle Ages, and a faith interwoven with Irish identity for centuries since − though less so in recent times.
By the seventh century Ireland was indisputably regarded as Christian by both Irish and foreign sources. Although the conversion of Ireland can hardly be described as rapid, it is nevertheless remarkable for being the earliest conversion of a European culture, which lay beyond the limes of the former Empire.
Patrick, whose 7th-century biographers, Tirechán and Muirchú, credited him with converting all the Irish to Christianity and won for him the status of national apostle.
Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe.
The Irish Penal Laws of 1695 intensified the injustice brought upon by the Protestant English, wherein they stripped the Catholic Irish of religious freedoms and nearly all of their holdings including land.
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.
While Britain was Protestant, most of the Irish were Catholic — and with these religious differences came a deep-seated cultural divide. To help bolster its control, London planted settlers — Protestant settlers mostly from Scotland.
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.
Religion. 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.
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.
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.
From the Mediterranean it spread northwards into Gaul and it reached Ireland around the late 300s or early 400s. The first recorded missionary to Ireland was Palladius, who was probably from Gaul [France]. He was sent by the Pope to be bishop to the "Irish who believe in Christ".
Ireland's Catholic majority was subjected to persecution from the time of the English Reformation under Henry VIII. This persecution intensified when the Gaelic clan system was completely destroyed by the governments of Elizabeth I and her successor, James I.
St. 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.
It gradually gained ground and replaced the old pagan traditions. The Catholic Church in Ireland cites its origin to this period and considers Palladius as the first bishop sent to the Gaels by Pope Celestine I.
The Troubles were sparked by tit-for-tat violence
Unionist — meaning, pro-British — Protestants were a majority of the population in Northern Ireland and effectively ran the state, shutting Irish-identified Catholics out of jobs and political power through discrimination and gerrymandering.
One of the most widely known cases of sexual abuse in Ireland involved Brendan Smyth, who, between 1945 and 1989, sexually abused and assaulted 20 children in parishes in Belfast, Dublin and the United States. The investigation of the Smyth case was allegedly obstructed by the Norbertine Order.
Catholics mainly identified as pro-Irish and nationalist; they wanted Northern Ireland to unite with the Republic of Ireland. Protestants largely called themselves pro-British and unionist; they vehemently opposed leaving the United Kingdom. Those disagreements erupted into terrorism.
When Northern Ireland was formed in 1920, it was decided, partly because of where Catholic and Protestant populations lived, to only include six of the nine counties of Ulster within the new state. Thus, the remaining three counties eventually formed part of the Irish Free State.
By 1560 the majority of the nobility supported the rebellion; a provisional government was established, the Scottish Parliament renounced the Pope's authority, and the mass was declared illegal. Scotland had officially become a Protestant country.
As a result of the Reformation, Protestantism is the most widely practiced religion in the modern United Kingdom, even though active participation in the church has declined in recent years.
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.
Muslims have been living in Ireland since the 1950s and over the decades have become a minority religion, many of whom are Irish citizens. Census 2006 indicates that Islam was the third largest (stated) religious affiliation in the Irish state, having increased by almost 70% since the previous Census.
In Ireland, Gaelic (called Irish by those who live there) is recognised as the official language of the nation, and it is required to be taught in all government-funded schools. Meanwhile in Scotland, English is the official language and Gaelic is recognised as a minor language.