This is an explanation of how the Catholic Church came to hold such a powerful position in Irish society, and the factors central to the decline in the Church's monopoly on morality.
Religious habitus of Irish Catholics; church organization and control; power and the Catholic church in Irish social, political and economic life; growth of the power of the institutional church in 19th-century Ireland; Irish civilizing process; transformation of Irish society; the Irish mother; decline in the Catholic church monopoly on Irish morality, 1986-97; influence of the Catholic church on modern Irish society.
