Ah you're a Catholic!

I know a lot of Irish people and they're all rabidly Catholic, so yeah, I'd think there was about a 70% chance you would be, if you're from the Republic. I wouldn't say it out loud though.

I mean, Irish people are famously Catholic. I live in an Irish area and there are saints parades throughout the summer and three Catholic churches within spitting distance. Even people who don't count themselves as religious have Catholic funeral masses and a certain amount of guilt, lol!

But at the moment in 2026 the percentages are very high, I don't think people should make such bold remarks but it's not really a surprise that people think his as the stats back it up!

This is hilarious, I can guarantee being a teenager in late 90s West London was a much more diverse place to grow up with kids at school whose heritage or religious affiliation was much more culturally diverse e.g. South Korean, Chinese, polish, Turkish, Czech, Jamaican, Jewish than late 90s Ireland let alone in 2026!

In terms of religious belief or non belief the UK is far more diverse. 69% of the Irish population identify as Catholic 14 % of the population reported having no religion, compared to 41% having non-religious affiliation in the UK. Equally, Christianity accounts for 82.3% of the population. The variety of religions is far more diverse in the UK.

Racial abuse has become a huge problem in Ireland. One things victims say is that people won't speak up. It's often gangs of feral scumbags, so people are probably afraid, but still...

I'm from NI and have been asked soooo many times in England if I'm Catholic or Protestant. I've started just saying 'why do you ask?' although this meant one colleague said I was deliberately awkward. Never mind that she shouldn't have asked in work.
I've had people say that was a very Irish way of doing something (not a compliment).

It's not just colleagues, I was asked twice by midwives and by random older women at bus stops etc.

I think most of them didn't intend any offence but also had no concept of just how sensitive a question it was to ask someone from NI.

You might just possibly be voicing some outdated and stereotypical ideas there.

Yeah apologies, I'm including Northern Ireland as well, which I guess I would in real life too, as I don't know enough people from either Northern Ireland or the Republic of to distinguish between accents!

The point remains though, that due to history, it's hard not to make some kind of assumption about religion. Just as if I was meeting someone from Saudi Arabia, I might be presuming they come a Muslim background. Assumptions are everywhere. I would expect people to make assumptions about me too, based on my sex, my country, what I wear, my accent (I have a really broad Derbyshire accent!), etc. I truly don't care as long as people don't comment out loud.

The important thing imo is not the automatic assumption, but your second thought where you challenge the assumption and filter what comes out your mouth lol. Think what you like in the privacy of your mind, but there's literally no reason at all to assume out loud about someone's religion. I'd only ever bring religion up if someone else brought it up first (and honestly I'm a diehard Atheist so I'd personally avoid it full stop as it's all bs to me lol).

What are "bouncy castle Catholics" please?
Sounds like my kind of Church!

English people tend to have very outdated and stereotypical ideas about other nations which they're not shy about voicing.

I'm Irish too and my time in England was a bizarre experience, Within minutes of leaving the airport the taxi driver we hired was ranting and raving about foreigners the whole drive, it was very uncomfortable as we were obviously not locals.

I was actually quite suprised at the level of ignorance, xenophobia and racism there, Ireland has those issues too of course but I didn't realise just how behind England was until I went.
Within the first three days I got insulted by strangers at a Tesco just on hearing my accent while I spoke with my sister and the same again by a few doddery old men when we went out for dinner, we were going to leave but the staff were nice and seated us away from them. They didn't say anything to the men though, in Ireland they'd have been kicked out for that behaviour.

That was another thing, English people don't seem to speak up when these things happen even when they happen in crowded public places, I find back home people are more likely to speak up and defend a stranger.
Saying that overall most of the people we spoke with were decent but not as friendly or helpful as Irish are.

Sorry to hear the ignorance is still there, my experience was a few years back and
hopefully England will improve with time.

Only about 4% of the Irish population is Protestant.

I'm English, and personally presume there are a higher proportion of Catholics (and protestants) in Ireland due to the history, especially in comparison to England where religion seems to be dying, but I would never assume an individual's religion. And I'd certainly never go around stating 'oh you must be Catholic then'. Unless someone is wearing a habit or a hijab or whatever, there's no need to be assuming anyone's religion, and even so, it's just not something you bring up. I'm surprised anyone does to be honest lol, as it's not really part of British culture to chat about religion casually as no one usually gives a shit, I always thought that was an American thing!

What blew my mind was the evangelical vicar telling DS’s Year 2 class at the C of E village school in the Midlands that Genesis was literally true, and that Halloween was unchristian. In fairness to our nuns, who were not a great lot, none of them thought that god made the world in a week or that going around the neighbours in a witch’s hat and bin bag was going to conjure up Beelzebub.

I'd say yourself and your friend were more the exception rather than the rule though so hardly that shocking that someone meeting you would assume you could be Catholic, kinda weird of them to verbalise it though.

In fairness, when we were kids (40s and Irish) the country was mostly catholic. It is a lot more diverse now.

I have found people are shocked that we don’t close shops on Sundays in Ireland and in many ways Ireland is now less religious than the UK. I found the way kids play groups in England are often in churches etc… really mad when I moved here. Also the way the schools are so religious here - two of the good schools near us have a policy of accepting practicing christians ahead of other religions - they had a form to get signed by the church you attend to prove attendance (that ruled us out as our kid isn’t baptised and we’re not religious). My partner (English Protestant - though he would say agnostic) attended Sunday school as a kid - I don’t know anyone in Ireland who had that forced upon them!

Well yes, I have known a lot of Irish people and been out with Irish men and they were all actually Catholic.
Ive been to irish catholic weddings, irish society balls where there was a distinctly catholic attendee list and stayed with my ex boyfriend on his uncles farm in the cottage in the grounds that his granny used to live in before they built the new farm house.. and was surrounded by the very catholic thing of pictures of jesus and the sacred heart complete with glowing light up heart (extremely disturbing at night in the middle of nowhere in an ancient cottage).
So for me I do actually assume first an irish person is probably catholic. Although I do appreciate not all will be.

Irish people generally consume British media growing up, whereas few British people have ever watched Irish media. I’m starting to wonder if you’re trolling now. Not very long ago Britain and Ireland were involved in a conflict. Attitudes in a lot of Britain still reflect the biases from that time, and they haven’t learnt much more (in my experience). In their experience Irish = Catholic and that’s what all the fuss regarding the troubles was about in their eyes. I’ve found they tar all Irish people with the one brush

And ‘identify as Catholic in some form’ includes atheist cultural Catholics, bouncy castle Catholics, people who attended Catholic schools because that’s what there was, people who never darken the door of a church apart from weddings and funerals etc etc.