.eligion and the celebration of feast days played a very
important part in the lives of Irish people during the fifties
and sixties, including their working lives, their family lives and
The majority of people lived by the law of the Catholic
Church, and lived in fear of the stigma or shame of not abiding
by the words of the priests and bishops. They were taught that
if you did not obey God, He would punish you, and this left
many with a literal fear of God.
There are seven sacraments within the Church that
required specific celebration and ritual – Baptism, Confession,
Communion, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Matrimony and
Anointing of the Sick – but people also attended church for
other reasons, including mass, benediction, sodality, forty
hours’ adoration and the Stations of the Cross.
When a new baby was born, relatives and friends would