Irish Prefer Pub to Church, Survey Says

Reuters | 3-19-02 | n/a

[Slainte]

Eminently sensible, IMO. I myself gave up Lent for Guinness.

[Slainte]

The Irish get the bad press, but the English are just as bad.

Oh no, worse, much worse.

[wideawake]

Hmmm . . . so much ignorance . . .

Two fun facts:

(1) Alcoholism is worse in Protestant Scotland and Orthodox Russia than it is in Catholic Ireland.

(2) The Catholic Church was the only institution in Irish society that allowed the Irish people to maintain their dignity during seven centuries of cruel occupation. It fed the starving, educated the poor and resisted the tyrant.

If it were up to the British ascendancy, the literacy rate of Catholics in Ireland at the time of independence would have been 0%, not 89%. The Irish owe their nationhood to the Church.

[dead]

What always struck me as weird about Ireland is that all the other countries of northern Europe became protestant

You should sue your ancestors for giving you the “stupid gene”.

Your understanding of religion, geography, and genetics all suffered for it.

[wideawake]

Thanks, I forgot to mention that our friend is apparently laboring under the assumption that Lithuania is in southern Europe.

[Bounceback]

William Blake, the poet, said it best in his poem, The Little Vagabond:

"Dear mother, dear mother, the church is cold,
But the ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm;
Besides I can tell where I am used well,
Such usage in Heaven will never do well.

"But if at the church they would give us some ale,
And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,
We'd sing and we'd pray all the live-long day,
Nor ever once wish from the church to stray.

"Then the parson might preach, and drink, and sing,
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring;
And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church,
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.

"And God, like a father rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as he,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
But kiss him, and give him both drink and apparel."

William Blake (1757-1827)