Mormonism in Ireland

If you knew me personally, you'd know that I am particularly interested in the history and culture and basically everything to do with Ireland. If you've read much of this blog you'll also know that I have a really odd fascination with the religion in which my husband was raised: Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). For whatever reason, I wanted to do a little research into Mormonism's role in Ireland. Considering the history of religious (and, I would say, ethnic) conflict on the island between Catholics and Protestants, I was curious to see how the Mormon faith might fare in a region where one's faith has been, at least in the past, essentially a declaration of fealty to either Nationalism/Republicanism or Loyalism/Unionism.

The Constitution of the Republic of Ireland guarantees freedom of religion, though an obvious majority of citizens identify as Roman Catholic. In Northern Ireland, the largest religious demographic is Catholic, though they are not a majority (40%). Only a few thousand people in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland together identify as Mormon (though the LDS church reports a much higher number). I believe this is largely due to the fact that, when conversion rates were at their highest (in the 19th century), most converts did not remain in Ireland, but emigrated to the United States to be with other members of their faith in Utah.

There is an interesting history to the LDS church's missionary efforts in Ireland. It seems that the growth of Mormonism in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland at all is probably due to the immigration of a number of German Mormons to the Republic of Ireland in the early 20th Century.

I found this article essentially calling the Catholic church rather whiny for objecting to the use of diocesan records of parishioners by Mormons for their temple ordinances for the dead. The author does draw some interesting comparisons with Catholicism's tradition of praying for the souls of the unbaptized or unconverted dead, as well as the fact that infants have as little say in the matter of baptism as would a dead person, and Catholics still do that.

In modern-day Ireland, "church" and "sex abuse scandal" go together like peas and carrots. So, when a woman accused a Mormon missionary of sexual abuse, the story was published in this Irish Times article. In the wake of the Ryan Report (May 2009) and Murphy Report (November 2009), such allegations are taken quite seriously in Ireland.

I found a New York Times article from 1855 discussing the "Mormonites" and their preaching in Ireland (including a "preacher" baptizing "three females" ... in the nude). It seems that some were amused at the prospect of Roman Catholicism being undermined in mostly-Catholic Ireland by what this journalist clearly believed to be a rather crazy sect (referring to the female converts as "sultanas," or concubines).

This article states that Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of the LDS church, is actually descended from "an Irish chieftain of the fifth century," and suggests that Mormons from all over the world might now want to visit Ireland, as "the ancestral land of their religion's founder."

MormonConverts.com is happy to share testimonies of people who have converted from other faiths, including those of Irish people:
Heavenly Father Has Guided Me Home by Margaret Curry
The Lord Strengthened Me by Christopher Hills

In all, I'd say that Mormonism has had little, if any, influence on the culture of either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, though obviously not for lack of trying. The thing is, for many people in Ireland (from either the North or the Republic), to change faiths is (in their minds) practically an act of treason. One Irish college professor (who also works in the music industry) I met in Ireland said that, for many in the Republic of Ireland, to become a Protestant "still smacks of being a traitor." Most people, if they no longer accept the faith they grew up with, simply stop practicing. Many in the Republic of Ireland will identify as Catholic, and stipulate either practicing or non-practicing, but they keep that Catholic identity. Unless or until religion stops being associated with ethnic/political loyalties on the island, there is little chance that anything besides Mainline Protestantism or Roman Catholicism could experience any real growth in either Northern Ireland or in the Republic.

peace.