Sir, – Your report that “Ireland puts its faith in education, not religion” is based on a misunderstanding (Home News, January 24th). It states that “people living in Ireland” placed religion and spirituality “last of all 119 priority options”.
In fact the Community Foundation for Ireland survey to which your report relates was conducted online with a self-selecting group of respondents and is not demographically representative. There was also only one question asked about religion and spirituality, and that was in the particular and somewhat ambiguous “issue area” of civic and community engagement. Respondents were not asked to rank religion and spirituality among 119 general priorities.
Even within that issue area, most respondents rated religion and spirituality more important than not, and a number of other “variables” in the response box such as “volunteering” and “sense of belonging in the community” may include respondents who are motivated by religion or spirituality to serve others.
It would be interesting to learn more about the nuances of Irish people’s actual attitudes towards the two areas of religion and spirituality, neither of which are to be equated with church attendance or formal affiliation.
As someone who delivers a module on belief and communication at this university, I find that many young people have an abiding interest in spiritual or religious teachings and in their meaning or significance for the modern world. This interest has not been entirely smothered by persistent scandals or institutional obscurantism.
While your report of the survey no doubt flatters the liberal self-image of certain readers, it might have looked rather different from a news perspective had you honed in on the survey area “inclusive society” rather than “sense of community”? Here we find that the survey’s self-selecting respondents firmly placed “Travellers in Professional Careers” and “Travellers in Politics” at the bottom of their list of priorities. – Yours, etc,