Fascinating thoughts abound in this thread. I must admit, though, that I never thought of Ireland as a religious state. The Catholic church has plainly held overmuch influence there, and exercised it through DeValera and others of a similar pattern, but that seems very much on the wane at this point in Irish history. It was a problem of some standing, as "No Priests in Politics" is a political slogan of some 200 years standing among Irish freedom lovers. Catholic philosphy and mores are very much a part of Irish culture, but palpably fading. The religious fanaticism that drives many folks in Northern Ireland is a similar problem, in the academic sense, in that it appears on the surface to thoroughly permeate state institutions, as the PSNI/RUC, while the seems to be a strong ethos of professionalism in many, perhaps most, other state organs. One of Joseph Campbell's tenents is that mythologies must evolve to fulfill their function of helping people adapt/adjust to their environment. That process is very much hindered by fanaticism of any religious stripe.