The End of Catholic Ireland?

That is what the Dublin Political and Media Classes want. But Catholic Ireland is still more than safe in the six counties that remain within the United Kingdom.

There will always be Catholic schools in the United Kingdom, and Westminster will never introduce abortion to Ireland, a fact which is the last chance of preventing Dublin from doing so and thus restraining Westminster. That fact depends entirely on the continuation of partition.

In Northern Ireland, the inspection system was always more rigorous. But even so, almost everyone in the Irish Republic was educated by the Catholic Church. That is the wider context, providing the necessary senses of perspective and proportion to this story.