Abstract
Over the past three decades, the Republic of Ireland has experienced an unprecedented cultural transition from a deeply entrenched Catholic hegemony to a pluralistic, post-secular society. While macro-level sociological datasets capture the decline in institutional adherence, there remains a paucity of longitudinal qualitative research examining the lived experience of religious disaffiliation among youth. This study investigates the micro-sociological trajectories of religious exit and renegotiation among young Irish adults through a four-year qualitative longitudinal panel (2019–2023, N = 36). Employing repeated semi-structured interviews and narrative analysis, we chart how participants aged 18–26 navigated shifts in belief, ritual engagement, and identity. Our findings reveal three primary trajectories of disaffiliation: moral alienation driven by ethical ruptures surrounding bodily autonomy and LGBTQ+ rights; habitual erosion characterized by quiet social drift and the fading salience of ritual; and reflexive syncretism wherein individuals divest from dogma while retaining affective or aesthetic dimensions of cultural Catholicism. By analyzing the intersection of institutional distrust, generational differentiation, and digital socialization, this paper advances contemporary theories of post-secular transition. Ultimately, we argue that disaffiliation in contemporary Ireland does not reflect an uncritical descent into secular vacuum, but rather a dynamic process of ethical self-construction and cultural re-articulation.
