In an essay entitled Republic is a Beautiful Word, Roddy Doyle describes himself as an atheist who dislikes the Pope intensely. He then proceeds to write with bewilderment of his warm and positive reaction to seeing the Pope meet the Irish soccer team before the World Cup quarter-final in Italy in 1990.

This response captures something of the resonance between the Catholic religion and national identity in the psyche of many Irish people.

In the Republic the strong association between the Catholic Church and the struggle for independence has contributed to a close identification between loyalty to the nation and loyalty to the Church.

The nationalist or republican tradition in Ireland is very different from that of France (or Portugal) where secularists perceive l'eglise (together with le chateau) as being in alliance against the republican institutions made up of la mairie, l'ecole, et la poste.

When the Irish State was founded in 1922, the Irish version of republicanism was officially endorsed. A system of educational administration was already in place through which the government could realise its aim of promoting cultural nationalism.

This also involved the continuation and strengthening through education of the connection between religion and national identity. The new State affirmed the centrality of the religious remit of the whole primary school curriculum.

Yet there has also been an aspiration to reconcile the religious dimension of cultural identity with a respect for other versions of human self-understanding. The trend in public policy for the State to distance itself from endorsing religious identity has become more pronounced. In the area of civic formation, it has taken on an exaggerated form.

Let us explore more closely this intriguing tributary of State policy. Very strong affirmations are made about the relationship between religion and the development of national identity in the Memorandum V 40 published in 1942 governing the principles of vocational education. The document seeks an "integration" of religion with national culture in order to provide within the school a "unity" which would reflect that of the "good home" where "tradition, faith, work and recreation blend naturally and easily with one another".

In a document introducing the subject "civics" in 1966, the conceptual link between civic and religious education is very close. The authors of the document argue that religious education is primary and that moral education and, by extension, civic education derive from religious principles. However, this link is slightly attenuated in the 1971 curriculum for primary schools.

THE authors of this document reject the "narrow viewpoint that matters of morals and behaviour belong exclusively to the sphere of the churches" and affirm the importance of encouraging pupils to "embrace" moral values "by personal choice" in the light of "an upright conscience".

Nonetheless, the form of patriotism recommended must "prove itself in its consistency with duty to God and to the moral law".

A great change occurs in the attitude to the religious dimension of civic formation in the 1990s. The notion of tolerance mentioned in 1966 emerges as a defining element of the document on Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) at second level published in 1996. This document endorses the secular values of liberal democracy and also places a very strong emphasis on communitarian values of social responsibility. The syllabus reflects the general thrust of educational policy by leaving it to individual schools to relate the values of the programme to their own ethos.

What is significant is the failure even to raise the possibility of a connection between religion and civic culture. In a country where the two have been so intimately related, this neglect is rather surprising.

Whether this is a result of a considered change in policy or an unselfconscious response to a new zeitgeist is difficult to say, although I am inclined towards the latter explanation.

The salience of religion in Irish culture makes it a topic which should be included in any officially-sponsored programme of civic education. Apart from its role in the cultural self-understanding of both believers and non-believers, religion is a very significant feature in the political division of the island.

The relationship between faith and culture in Ireland manifests itself in many ways. The missionary church has animated much of the contribution of Ireland to the developing world and has highlighted the existence of poverty and exploitation in these areas. The ideals of human conduct enshrined in the Christian tradition (in the parable of the Good Samaritan or in the Sermon on the Mount, for example) form part of the moral capital of our civic culture.

Indeed, a close connection exists between the values which are promoted in the CSPE programme (human dignity, interdependence and stewardship, for example) and Christian values in general.

By contrast, the new syllabus in religious education has a section dealing with the place of religion in civil life. So it is strange there is not a parallel treatment of the theme in the CSPE programme. I am not saying that we should return to the pious over-emphasis on religion of previous documents. Yet the Judaeo-Christian story has played such a role in shaping the national psyche that it should be incorporated into the civic story of our country.

Dr Kevin Williams lectures at the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin and is a former president of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland