There is a return to faith among teenage boys tired of the emptiness of virtual reality, according to the new principal of St Vincent’s Castleknock College, secondary school in Dublin.

Elaine Kelly has previously worked in coeducational and all-girls schools.

Aware of the different challenges facing boys and girls, she said, “Really what boys need is to feel that they have a purpose.”

And one of the things that attracted Kelly to St Vincent’s is its Catholic ethos.

“Gen Z – that cohort of young male boys – they are returning to their spiritual lives, to their faith, to their own spirituality; that sense of reflection. Because there’s nothing actually else out there for them. There’s nothing at the end of a mobile phone. It’s vacuous. It’s empty.”

“You can keep scrolling. The dopamine fix, it isn’t actually sustaining young men any more. I’m actually struck here in the school by the strength of faith that I see among the young students in the school,” she adds.