Good luck trying to change something that's part of a cultural identity.
Irish are catholic not because religion is actually something positive, but because it's a contrast with the British church, and part of their cultural identity.
> Irish are catholic not because religion is actually something positive, but because it's a contrast with the British church, and part of their cultural identity.
Hmmm, I think you'll find that Catholicism is older than the Church of England (not that this relates to the metric system in any way). The English changed from being Catholic to Church of England during Henry VIII's reign. The Irish largely remained Catholic.
Catholicism started as a counter reform to Marcionism, including the Torah again in the Bible and rejecting some Gnostic concepts still prevalent in Paulism.
This was at least a century (the dating is not precise) before Saint Patrick converted Ireland to Christianism, and specially, many centuries before the creation of Church of England.
I don't see what part of my observation about 21 century Ireland made you think that I presupposed the Church of England was older. That part of history is even on TV (The Tudors).
Irish are catholic not because religion is actually something positive, but because it's a contrast with the British church, and part of their cultural identity.