Please see below a document from the Council for Research and Development of the Irish Bishops’ Conference on recent trends in ordained and professed people in the Catholic Church in Ireland: Recent trends in ordained and professed people in the Catholic Church in Ireland 3 July 2014 3 July 2014

The Council for Research and Development sought to establish a profile of Diocesan priests currently in ministry across the 26 dioceses of Ireland.

A short review of recent ESS data by Eoin O’Mahony, Council for Research and Development of the Irish Bishops’ Conference.

Families and Households: An initial analysis of Census 2011 Results The first set of confirmed results from Census 2011 in the Republic was released on 29 March 2012. This set is entitled This Is Ireland and contains the tabulated data and some additional analysis for marital status and age, living arrangement and families usual residence and […]

Latest figures for practice and belief in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and a report detailing the age profile of priests in ministry in 2011.

Case-Study: Trends in Irish Church Personnel 1990-1994 The years that I served as Director of the Council for Research and Development were years in which the nature of Irish society – and the work of the Council – underwent significant changes.   Indeed, it is arguable that we are only now beginning to understand the significance […]

Some Reflections on Membership of the Council for Research and Development, Irish Bishops’ Conference My involvement in the work of the Council for Research and Development goes back to 2006. As a result of my research interests in the sociology of religion and my training as a sociologist at the University of Notre Dame, I […]

Memories of Research & Development at the Irish Bishops’ Conference There were times during the fieldwork for the national survey of religious beliefs, practices and attitudes in 1973/74 that I thought it was going to fall apart. We were relatively young, quite inexperienced team of researchers. I was 22 years old. I had completed my […]

A Survey of Religious Practice, Attitudes and Beliefs, 1973-‘4 This study was labelled the first national survey of religion inIrelandand has been used as a baseline for subsequent studies.  The then Research and Development Unit (R&D) had decided that such a study was needed and approached Fr. Donal O’Donohue to direct the study.  Fr. O’Donohue […]

2010 marks forty years since the foundation of the research office of the Bishops’ Conference. To celebrate this milestone, the Council for Research & Development has published online highlights of its social research projects over the years. Introduction In this interview, Archbishop Dermot Clifford, Chair of the Council for Research and Development, discusses how social […]