Sir, – Your correspondent, Larry Dunne, is erroneous in stating "some 78 per cent of citizens declared themselves Catholic" in the 2016 census.
In reality, the person filling in the form on behalf of the household declared them so. As this would usually have been the oldest adult and as I doubt that person would have consulted their kids on how they wished to be shown, the proportion of Catholics is potentially massively overstated.
There is no good news for the Catholic Church in the fact that the number declaring no religion nearly doubled in five years. At that rate, the State will be majority secular by 2031. – Yours, etc,
KENNETH HARPER,
READ MORE
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
Burtonport, Co Donegal.