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Posted by GUEST, Openminded:

I am a Londoner of Irish descent,and I can testify that Ireland is riddled with prejudices probably born from all the medieval religious indocrination thats long gone on their that has created a culture of pointing the finger at anyone slightly different...Things are getting better slowly..I have noticed on my visits they have become more cosmopolitan and much less phased by foreigners and these days Dublin has its own gay area,but whilst catholics and protestants are still unable to live together in harmony you cant realy expect too much enlightenenment from such a country that still remains divided by such ancient religious differences.
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At the risk of causing (a) "thread creep" and (b) an Irish flame debate, I have to say that Openminded could be better-informed and more, er, openminded.

Ireland's culture has its prejudices, as does any. For most of the 20th century, Ireland was the most homogeneous society in Europe in terms of both race and religion. But "medieval religious indocrination" has not been part of the landscape here for a very long time. I was brought up in the 1960s and 1970s. Like the overwhelming majority of my generation, I am not an indoctrinated Roman Catholic. I personally know, at most, 3 or 4 people whom I would regard as devoutly religious - and they are not all Roman Catholics. For a variety of reasons, God and faith are less central to Irish culture than they were in the past. The change has been most noticeable and rapid in the last 10 years, but it began a long time before that, in the 1960s.

And with the greatest possible respect, Openminded's point about Catholics and Protestants being unable to live together makes no sense. If Openminded was talking about Belfast, or Glasgow's cathedrals of hate at "Darkhead" or "Ibronx", I'd agree with the point. But I fail to see the relevance of this issue to the city and country in which I live.

Salud.

Ulysses