Ireland’s Return to Paganism

The rulers of modern Ireland are at war with their country’s past. But in their haste to sever their connection to the nation’s religious roots, they are ignoring a very obvious question. After several centuries in which Catholicism and Irishness went hand-in-hand, what does the complete rejection of Christian heritage mean for Irish national identity? In a country that is now linguistically English, economically American, politically European, ethnically multicultural, and religiously indifferent, what makes post-Catholic Ireland any way distinctive?