Ireland ‘dictated’ pandemic church rules, while North negotiated

9th September 2022

An Irish academic who will conduct research into the impact of Covid on religion has said it appeared the Government in the Republic “dictated” pandemic rules to Churches while in the North there was more “give and take”. The Republic had the longest bans on public worship during the height of the pandemic of any country in Europe. Worshippers could potentially go to prison for violating the ban and one priest was fined for doing so.

Dr Gladys Ganiel of Queen’s University Belfast will undertake a three-year project with academics from around the world called ‘Religion in Societies Emerging from Covid-19’. The Iona Institute has commissioned several opinion poll on religious practice during lockdown that Dr Ganiel has quoted in her research.

The research aims to ascertain whether, or to what extent, the role of religion has changed in Ireland, Poland, Germany and Canada.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Sequence, Dr Ganiel stated Ireland is a “really interesting case” as the Churches are organised on an all-island basis but were interacting with two different jurisdictions.

She said: “In the Republic of Ireland quite often what seemed to appear to be the case was that the Government kind of dictated restrictions to religious groups and there wasn’t a lot of give and take, whereas in Northern Ireland it seemed to be more a relationship of negotiation.