Religion in Ireland before 1970

kosie

Hi,

My son has to ask people how religion was in Ireland before 1970. Now, if some of you are not too bothered letting your age show, would you mind answering a few of these general questions if applicable, please?

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass?
2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house?
3.) Did you fast before communion?
4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family?


And thats it!
Thanks...

swampgas

kosie wrote: »

Hi,

My son has to ask people how religion was in Ireland before 1970. Now, if some of you are not too bothered letting your age show, would you mind answering a few of these general questions if applicable, please?

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass?
2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house?
3.) Did you fast before communion?
4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family?


And thats it!
Thanks...

I was but a kiddie in the late 60's but anyway:
1) Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, along with every other family on the street
2) Yes, most of them are still at the family home
3) Yes, one hour, breakfast was skipped before mass if we were not up in time
4) Maybe a bible in the house, but rarely if ever used. More of an ornament really.

Skrynesaver

Like swampgas I was a kid @ the time, but ...

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass? Daily communicant until I was 14 ...
2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house? All over the place laminated prayers, holy water fonts, paintings of open heart surgery, the lot.
3.) Did you fast before communion? From the night before
4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family? There was a family bible, I had various prayer books

Asiaprod

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass?
Made to go every Sunday and on feast days
2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house?
Lots of them, and Holy Water by the door. Just about every one of my friends houses had a Sacred Heart Picture prominently displayed in the hallway.
3.) Did you fast before communion?
Yes, from the night before., then it changed to 3 or 1 hours (cant remember), but it was a relief.
4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family?
My own, a communion present.

Beruthiel

I can answer for the 70's, can't remember much before that.

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass?

Every Sunday and all holy days.

2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house?

Yes. Pic of Jesus, holy water font.

3.) Did you fast before communion?

Yes

4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family?

I had two.
Pocket edition and childrens bible.
There was also a family bible.
And of course, everyone had their own rosary beads.
I was a good little brainwashed catholic.

Bannasidhe

kosie wrote: »

Hi,

My son has to ask people how religion was in Ireland before 1970. Now, if some of you are not too bothered letting your age show, would you mind answering a few of these general questions if applicable, please?

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass?
2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house?
3.) Did you fast before communion?
4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family?


And thats it!
Thanks...

Also a kid in the late 60s so...

1.) Every Sunday and Holy Day - sometimes during the week with my grandmother who went every day. Stopped going at all aged 11 (in mid 70s).
2) No open heart pictures but lashings of pictures of Saints, statues, fonts, plastic BVMs with water from various sources....
3) No - adults did, but not children. Strictly no meat on Fast days tho.
4) No. Only RCC approved prayer books. First Bible was bought by me aged 10 in mid 70s.

vicwatson

swampgas wrote: »

I was but a kiddie in the late 60's but anyway:
1) Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, along with every other family on the street
2) Yes, most of them are still at the family home
3) Yes, one hour, breakfast was skipped before mass if we were not up in time
4) Maybe a bible in the house, but rarely if ever used. More of an ornament really.

+1 I could have written the above (like thousands and thousands of suckers I suppose)

Thinking back on this it's all quite scary, horrible thoughts

robindch

kosie wrote: »

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass?
2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house?
3.) Did you fast before communion?
4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family?

1) Sundays and most "holy" days.

2) I had a Infant Jesus of Prague statue in my bedroom, but as this was the 1970's and Prague was in the Evil East, I never knew it has Praguish connections. One day, I knocked it off its perch, it crashed onto the floor and we couldn't glue it back together again. No idea where it is now.

3) Yes, one hour usually. When I was around eight, I remember wondering whether you had to do this to make sure that Jesus was in his own special piece of poo.

4) There was a large bible somewhere in the house, but nobody ever read it. My primary school did provide a tiny pocket-sized copy of the NT in a handsome red cover (still have it somewhere), but we never read anything there unless a priest told us to.

BTW, Bishop Casey was top dog in Kerry at the time and he was the guy who gave me my first holy communion a few years after his famous dalliance with the splendid Annie Murphy.

.

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

When I was around eight, I remember wondering whether you had to do this to make sure that Jesus was in his own special piece of poo.

New favourite post of 2013.

nagirrac

1. Yes, all Sundays and holy days
2. Several pictures with little red lights, one in each room I think. I still remember the brown haired fair skinned blue eyed Jesus (or Seamus as my daughter once called him on a visit back to Ireland).
3. I don't remember fasting
4. No bible in the house that I remember anyway

One thing that might be interesting for the research is the practice of the "stations" at peoples houses, which I think would be fairly unique to Ireland as I believe it dates to penal times. Do they still do it? I remember it as much more interesting than going to church.

wonderfulname

nagirrac wrote: »

One thing that might be interesting for the research is the practice of the "stations" at peoples houses, which I think would be fairly unique to Ireland as I believe it dates to penal times. Do they still do it? I remember it as much more interesting than going to church.

It still exists in places, I remember accidentally finding myself at one in cork about 10 years ago and being highly confused.

Here's a reference if it is of interest: http://www.corkandross.org/html/sacraments/eucharist/station_masses.jsp

lazygal

My relations hosted the stations last year. Still going strong in the Midlands and still a major event.

housetypeb

Late 60's early 70's
I came from a rural background so..
Mass every Sunday and holy days because otherwise it was a sin and the neighbors would be talking about you.
One picture of the blond Jesus with the red lamp under it,with JFK on his left and some pope on the right.
Not allowed to eat within an hour before mass.
Had a bible in the house that I used to delve into out of boredom when I had run out of other books to read.
I remember long boring decades of the rosary for the conversion of Russia or something because Mary Mother of God said so.

The stations are still going on,in parts of West Cork anyway.
I loved going to them when I was young,they would last long into the night as all the relatives would show up to catch up on the news and gossip and all the grown ups would get drunk and every one would be called apon to sing a song, recite a poem, tell a tale or play a tune or whatever their forte was.

Edit. fish every Friday.

Banbh

As a Catholic family we didn't have a Bible in the house. The Bible was only for Protestants; we had prayer books.

Michael Nugent

1.) Almost never. My parents did, mostly I suspect for social reasons, but they didn't make us go unless we wanted to.

However, I must have gone often enough to remember some of the words whenever I go to a funeral or wedding now.

2.) Not really. A couple of framed prints, including one of Jesus with his heart shining in his chest.

3.) No.

4.) There was a family Bible, which included pages where the family baptisms and communions could be recorded.

I used the family Bible one Easter holiday to do a school project, where we had to rewrite the gospel stories in our own words, and it was while doing that project that I realised that it was nonsense.

I spent ages doing the project, and I filled nearly a whole copy-book with it, including drawing pictures. Then I remember one other boy in the class wrote - as his entire project - "Jesus was God. He had disciples. They crucified him."

Kiwi in IE

I complain a lot about how religious this county is. When I read the above posts it is actually amazing how many of you have managed to turn out normal! It takes a strong person to resist having been brainwashed from day one.

With the exception on one grandmother who immigrated from Greece to NZ, and occasionally went along to the Greek Orthodox church (more for cultural than religious reasons), no one in my family for at least the last three generations of adults has been in the slightest bit religious. There is nothing unusual about that in NZ.

gbee

kosie wrote: »

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass?
2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house?
3.) Did you fast before communion?
4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family?

Born: 1954: A very Religious family and I was initially very, very gullible.

Mass was every Sunday without fail, also on every Feast Day so two masses in a week was not uncommon.

Bedrooms had the typical Virgin and Christ portraits and the kitchen had the convent class massive dark crusifix with the dead figure on it in detail.

Fast three hours before communion and don't forget the forced weekly confession on the Saturday prior. Rarely would one accept communion without a confession.

Never had a bible as far as I know. If we had my older brother tore it up.

Additional to your questions: Midday Angelus was observed: Traffic, both horse drawn and motor would stop and everyone would kneel down in the street and many rosary-beads would appear.

In house any novenas or fasting would be observed and whatever happened at lent, this lead to personal family revolt in our house and it never healed. TV was [black n white] and was off or only played sorrowful music during times when christ was being tortured or killed, seed like every day TBH.

That takes my story to about 1968, family broken up, some in England some in the USA, one in China another in Australia.

Misty Moon

And to be honest, most of the above was still happening in the '80s, too, although my mum was never successful at instituting a family rosary every evening like she used to have at home when she was a kid (her oldest brother died recently and at the funeral I found out that he said the rosary every single day from more or less the time he was able to talk). And I must admit that my dad, big atheist that he was (although not openly), managed to keep her in bed most Sundays so that once we were old enough to walk on our own usually it was just us kids going to mass.

I'm a bit curious as to why they have to find out what it was like before 1970? Did that much change during the '70s? I would have thought the '80s was when changes really started taking place but maybe my impressions are coloured by the fact that I was born in the early '70s and so remember the '80s better.

Bannasidhe

Misty Moon wrote: »

And to be honest, most of the above was still happening in the '80s, too, although my mum was never successful at instituting a family rosary every evening like she used to have at home when she was a kid (her oldest brother died recently and at the funeral I found out that he said the rosary every single day from more or less the time he was able to talk). And I must admit that my dad, big atheist that he was (although not openly), managed to keep her in bed most Sundays so that once we were old enough to walk on our own usually it was just us kids going to mass.

I'm a bit curious as to why they have to find out what it was like before 1970? Did that much change during the '70s? I would have thought the '80s was when changes really started taking place but maybe my impressions are coloured by the fact that I was born in the early '70s and so remember the '80s better.

I would tend to agree that it was the 80s when things really began to change. I know that for many of my generation born in the early to mid 60s the 82/83 Abortion campaign was a defining moment in the battle between the forces of conservative Catholic Ireland and a post-Women's Liberation generation.

That referendum was the first time I got to vote - then I got the boat!

JuliusCaesar

Did the LC in 1976.

1.) How often did you go to church/attend mass? Never, except for funerals/weddings of family friends.

2.) Did you have religious symbols in your house? There was a St Bridgets Cross - someone in the family had made it.

3.) Did you fast before communion? Didn't go to communion

4.) Did you have your own personal bible or was there a bible for the whole family? There were several bibles in the house, which we used occasionally pick up and read bits of.

my parents were atheists, and brought us up as atheists. We weren't militant about it, just matter-of-fact.

Anyone remember the Corpus Christi processions? with all the yellow-and-white Vatican pennants and flags flying?

kylith

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

Anyone remember the Corpus Christi processions? with all the yellow-and-white Vatican pennants and flags flying?

Yep. Every year all the bunting would go up and my brothers and I would have to troop around the neighbourhood with all the auld biddies. Great fun, so it wasn't.

Malari

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

Anyone remember the Corpus Christi processions? with all the yellow-and-white Vatican pennants and flags flying?

Is that what that is! They still do it in Cork. But I don't remember it growing up (although that was mostly the 80s, not 70s so I don't really qualify for the quiz...)

Bannasidhe

kylith wrote: »

Yep. Every year all the bunting would go up and my brothers and I would have to troop around the neighbourhood with all the auld biddies. Great fun, so it wasn't.

Carpentry would be perpetuated in Daunt's Square in Cork which when completed would be festooned with bunting and cause a severe disruption to the commerce of the City - I used to like taking money out/checking my balance/ordering mini statements/ making the machine beep at the ATM by Waterstones*...

It became my annual little tribute to this (yes, I used to do the song )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWBmaKk32fE

*(In fairness the first time I did that I genuinely needed cash and would have gone about my business with minimal fuss if I hadn't been loudly, constantly and belligerently shushed by Holy Joes)