Thirty-seven percent of Catholics attend Mass at least once a week, with a further seven percent attending once a fortnight and another eight percent attending every three to four weeks, adding up to a total of 52 percent who attend Mass regularly.

The findings are in a new poll conducted on behalf of The Irish Times by Ipsos/MRBI. Nine percent of respondents also said they attended Mass every 2-3 months, with 23pc saying they attended less often. Sixteen percent said they rarely or never attended Mass.

The vast majority of Irish Catholics believe in God (92pc), heaven (82pc), that believe God created us (80pc) and that Jesus was the son of God (84pc). Seventy-eight per cent believe in the resurrection of Jesus while 76 per cent believe God created the universe.

No distinction was made in the poll between practicing and non-practicing Catholics.

However, more than one in five (21pc) do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus or that God created the universe (22pc).

More than three-quarters (78pc) of Irish Catholics said they followed their own conscience rather than Church teaching (17pc) when it came to making moral decisions.  

Almost half of Irish Catholics (45pc) do not believe in Hell..

Overall, the poll found 90 per cent of respondents described themselves as Catholic, with 2 per cent Protestant, 2 per cent another religion, 5 per cent none, and per cent refusing to say.

Of those polled, 84 per cent believe priests should be allowed marry, with 7 per cent opposed, while 80 per cent believe there should be women priests, with 9 per cent opposed.

One poll question suggested there were “two main schools of thought regarding how mankind came into being – one being God created man, and the other being Darwin’s theory of human evolution”. The poll found that 56 per cent of all poll respondents (of all or no religion) believe God created man, with 18 per cent believing in evolution. Seven per cent believe in both while 7 per cent believe in neither and 12 per cent didn’t know.