Unbecoming Catholic

Reimagining Ireland

Volume 139

Edited by Dr Eamon Maher,
Technological University Dublin – Tallaght Campus

Unbecoming Catholic

Being Religious
in Contemporary Ireland

Tom Inglis

Oxford - Berlin - Bruxelles - Chennai - Lausanne - New York

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Inglis, Tom, author.

Title: Unbecoming Catholic : being religious in contemporary Ireland / Tom Inglis.

Description: Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, [2025] | Series: Reimagining Ireland, 1662-9094 ; volume 139 | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2024055717 (print) | LCCN 2024055718 (ebook) | ISBN 9781803748177 (paperback) | ISBN 9781803748184 (ebook) | ISBN 9781803748191 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Inglis, Tom--Religion. | Catholics--Ireland--Biography. | Ireland--Religious life and customs.

Classification: LCC BX4705.I535 I54 2025 (print) | LCC BX4705.I535 (ebook) | DDC 282/.415--dc23/eng/20250206

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024055717

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024055718

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at <http://dnb.d-nb.de>.

Cover image: © Arron Inglis

Cover design by Peter Lang Group AG

ISSN 1662-9094

ISBN 978-1-80374-817-7 (Print)

E-ISBN 978-1-80374-818-4 (E-PDF)

E-ISBN 978-1-80374-819-1 (E-PUB)

DOI 10.3726/b22436

© 2025 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne, Switzerland

Published by Peter Lang Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom

info@peterlang.com

Tom Inglis has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this Work.

All rights reserved.

All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

This publication has been peer reviewed.

www.peterlang.com

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

Religion begins with experience

Dimensions of being religious

CHAPTER 2 Catholic Colonisation

Being Catholic

Catholic enchantment

Catholic doctrine

Self-denial, sexual repression and fear

Catholic enforcement

Breaking free

Religious reformation

CHAPTER 3 A New Era of Being Religious

Attunement

Collective effervescence

Sport as a new religion?

Belonging

Being enchanted

CHAPTER 4 God and Nature

The question of God

Being spiritual

Being in nature

Mammon and being religious

CHAPTER 5 Conclusion

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

I have been a little obsessed with trying to understand how I have come to be the way I am. I have explored many avenues, mostly sociological. When it came to the latest attempt, I did not want to write an academic treatise. Nor did I want to write another memoir. It was something in-between. My experience of the world is profoundly personal. What I have experienced in becoming and unbecoming Catholic is unique to me, but it is also similar to what many other people have experienced in Ireland. I have met and talked with people who have inspired me, friends, colleagues and loved ones. I am grateful to you all. I am particularly grateful to Eamon Maher and Tony Mason who believed in this project when others did not. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of the text and the many other scholars who have contributed to my learning.

There are others who have been especially inspiring and insightful, Michael Cussen, Manus Charleton, David Blake Knox, Marta Abromowicz, Donal McAnaney, Michael Murphy, Charles Crockatt, Hugo Hamilton, Paddy Masterson and the late Gerard McCarthy. And there is family, particularly my son Arron, who did the cover image, and daughter Olwen who became the rock on which this self was realised.

Finally, there is Carol. She is kind, loving and patient. She has been my editor for many years now and, once again, has steered me in the right direction with quiet determination and great patience.

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

I stand at the window in my bedroom. I look over the garden that runs down to a small lake. On the far side there is an abundance of reeds that reach out from the shore into the lake. Beyond them there are hedgerows and patchy green fields where cattle come in summer. The fields rise up to a white house on a hill.

As I look out the window, I pick a spot in the distance and begin to focus on it. It is never the same spot. I concentrate on it. I like this moment. It is as if my whole being is reaching out into the infinite. I am a body and mind in time and space. There is just me and this one arbitrary leaf, branch, flower petal, blade of grass that I have come to focus on. I try to be still and to empty my mind.