Jess Garner GCU 114 Weebly a Country: Ireland Cultural Diversity in Ireland: Changes and Efforts to Preserve Ireland

is largely a place of tradition, which you will have noticed if you spent any time on other pages of this website. It is a place with rich history and cultural ties that, in the past, tended to be nearly unbreakable. The main reason for this was because culture caused close ties with religion, societal roles, and even government. Because Catholicism and some Protestantism has historically been so prevalent in Irish society, life in Ireland has been much the same over the past few centuries.. While the rest of the world was modernizing and developing into many vastly different cultures, Ireland has remained the same for a long time. But now, the winds have begun to change. Many facets of Irish life are starting to modernize, and though Ireland is behind the rest of the world, the process is slow but sure. In this paper I will address a few vital parts of Irish life, and they are as follows: family structure and its dependence upon religion, the alternate beliefs that have begun to take the place of Christianity in Ireland, and what measures, if any, are being taken to preserve the traditional Irish way of life. Family structure has been much the same in Ireland over the past few hundred years: man and women marry (divorce was traditionally unheard of), man goes off to work, woman stays home and raises the family. Children are close to their mother and distant from their father. The mother was submissive to the dominant father figure, and she was seldom, if ever, seen in the workforce. All of these facets of family life are traditional, and can be tied to the predominant faith of

Catholicism. This family structure is important to know because it is the presiding role of families in Ireland, 84.2% according to a census taken in 2011 (Wikipedia: Roman Catholicism in Ireland, p. 1). This religion holds tight on the Irish people because Ireland was evangelized as early as the fifth century (Wikipedia: Roman Catholicism in Ireland, p. 1). Modernization is the sole reason behind so many Irish beginning to fall away from traditional values held in correlation with Catholicism and some Protestantism. Many theorists believe another reason behind this social change lies also with the changing economy. In a study of social care versus religious preservation, it was noted traditionally, residential care for children was provided by religious orders in a society where he moral authority of church leaders and religious personnel was often unquestioned and sometimes abused (Doyle, Gallegher, p. 8). Modernization has caused a great divide in this tradition, and probably for good. Religious leaders who were corrupted could have used their power to hurt children which were easily within reach. So, in the mass of downsides to falling away from this traditional religion, this is one bright side. Because Christianity had so much impact on societal roles, many people, women in particular, feel pressure to conform to certain ways of living and acting. What modernization has brought to Ireland is a separation from the church and many people claiming they do not have a religion. This religious pressure is a roundabout result of modernization; the two chase after one another in a neverending game of the dog trying to catch its tail. In a 2006 census, unspecified or no religion stood at 5.7% (Kwintessential, p.1). This number is a good chunk of the

remaining population of Irish religion. Its difficult to take measures against modernization, because it is a process that happens regardless of human attempt to take it away. Certain measures can be taken to slow the process down, but its not something that can be stopped. In the past, the Irish love for tradition is what kept this modernization at bay. Today, many people want to break free from these societal norms, and so modernization has begun to pick up steam. And because religion and society are so closely related, changing beliefs cause an automatic shift in societal roles. Though a majority of Ireland is still either Catholic or Protestant, the number of rebels, or lack of a better word, grows each year.

Families in ireland. (2006). Retrieved 09/20, 2013, from http://www.tulane.edu/~rouxbee/kids06/ireland/_jwalsh/family.html Wikipedia. (2013). History of roman Catholocism in ireland. Retrieved 10/29, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Roman_Catholicism_in_Ireland AngloInfo. (2013). Culture and social life. Retrieved 11/11, 2013, from http://ireland.angloinfo.com/lifestyle/eu-factsheets-lifestyle/cultural-andsocial-life/ Doyle, J., & Gallegher, C. (2006). In a changing ireland, has social care practice left religious and spiritual values behind? Inglehart, Ronald and Baker, Wayne. (2001). Modernization, cultural changem and the persistance of traditional values., 19-51. Wikipedia. (2013). Culture of ireland. Retrieved 11/11, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Ireland