Religious labels do not tell full story of people’s identities

Sometimes it can very enjoyable to do so and other times I wonder why I bothered.

Such was the reaction when I read the story about ‘Catholic’ students being an overwhelming majority in the Holylands district of Belfast (‘Whopping 94.2% of students in Holylands are Catholic,’ November 20).

I imagine that if you were to do a survey amongst those nominal Catholics, how many of them could be really classified as Catholics?

How many of them truly believe in Catholicism and practice it? I would bet money that not many do. So, why bother using a religious denomination as a category to label people? I think it is irrelevant and and does not tell the full story.

In 2005, I participated in a graduate management programme in Belfast which was run by Parity Ireland in its then offices in Amelia Street.

It was the nicest academic class that I was ever a member of and thoroughly enjoyed my time with them. I must have impressed them a lot too as within two weeks of beginning the course, they elected me a class representative.

There were 29 students in the class. We were 15 men and 14 women. The ages spanned from 21 up to 41. The majority of the class were from Ulster — counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Monaghan, and Tyrone. Three of us were from further afield — myself from county Kildare, a man from Devon in England who had studied in Queen’s University, and there was also a Polish man who had moved to Northern Ireland.

Not that it was in any way important but if you had to determine which religion people supposedly belonged to, there seemed to be an equal divide between Catholics and Protestants. But here’s the thing, the Polish man was included in the Catholic category and the English man was ranked amongst the Protestants.

The national identities of the Polish and the Englishman were of far more relevance than any (probably non-existent) religious identities.

As most of the class were women and men in our 20s, we did what women and men in their 20s do. We partied and played together and some people hooked up. One marriage came from a couple that met in the class.

The man in that couple could be categorised as a Protestant and the woman a Catholic, but it was irrelevant.

The person with whom I became closest to from my time in Belfast is a beautiful Free Presbyterian woman. Again, the supposed religious categories that we hailed from was irrelevant.

Are there no better labels than religious denominations that can be used? These labels are not useful to tell the full story.

Seanán Ó Coistín, Trier, Germany

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