The rate of intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics in this State has remained "surprisingly low" in relatively recent times, according to an analysis by an Oxford academic.
Dr Richard O'Leary, of Nuffield College, estimates that two of every five native-born Protestants who married in the 1980s were wed to a person of different religious beliefs. Dr O'Leary, who based his figures on data from the 1991 census, believes that as few as one in eight Protestants married outside their faith in the late 1950s.
While the number of intermarriages has increased significantly in the last 40 years, Dr O'Leary says the rate is still low given the "tiny size" of the Protestant population. In the latest edition of the Economic and Social Review, he says this is "indicative of the continued relevance of religious barriers" in Irish society and betrays "a degree of denominational segregation" here.
The social factors which have caused the increase in intermarriage are undoubtedly complex, Dr O'Reilly says. Social barriers between Catholics and Protestants have been eroded by industrialisation, urbanisation and growth in the levels of participation in education, he says. Other factors which have led to closer social contact include the reduction of religious segregation in schools, clubs and workplaces and the promotion of ecumenism.
Dr O'Leary says it is likely that rates of intermarriage are higher among Dublin residents and people living in the State who were born abroad. He says it is probable the rate of intermarriage will increase even further in coming years.
Conversions among intermarrying persons have fallen in recent years, Dr O'Leary says. A 1973 survey of the population of Dublin found that half of all religious marriages were "hidden by conversion". However, more recent data from a survey of the population in 1995 suggest that conversion is now less common, occurring in about one in seven of intermarriages. Changes in the teaching of the Catholic Church on intermarriage in the aftermath of Vatican II also helped reduce the rate of conversions, Dr O'Leary believes.
He also reports "a major shift from the practice whereby intermarriages were almost entirely solemnised in the Catholic Church to one where a growing minority take place in Protestant ceremonies".
