Irish Catholic Religion

Since time in memorial the world has had different religious groups and each of them has a different style of worshiping God. Christianity as a religion has different religions under it and as time goes by so does the number of this break up churches come into picture. It is however important that for many centuries Christianity has been dominated three main types of Christians, the conservative, the moderate and the liberal. The Roman Catholics are among one of the religious groups that has been in existence for a long period of time, the other being the Protestants. The purpose of this essay paper is to focus on the Irish Catholic religion. The paper will discuss the role that Frank Mccourt plays in the Irish religion culture based on the story Irish Step Dancing.

Frank Mccourt is one of the most respected and celebrated Irish step dancer and performer; this however did not come on a silver platter since he had to endure a lot of perseverance and exercised patience. It is important to note that the republic of Ireland is one nation where religion more specifically Catholicism and administration go hand in hand. According to Mccourt, the reason as to why most people in Ireland have religiously stuck in the catholic church is that they feel that since most of them live in abject poverty the only way they can find solace is in the church (Mccourt, 1996). In addition to that the people of Ireland compared themselves to the Vatican when they were given the liberty to have the home rule and also because Catholicism has been entrenched in the country's constitution. In his memoir, The Angela Ashes, the author has given different scenarios where the influence of the Catholic church was felt, for instance when he lost his job as a telegram boy, his mother tried to plead with his employer to reinstate him but to avail; however when the parish priest intervened he was immediately reinstated in his position (Mccourt, 1996). 

Due to the popularity of the step dance in Ireland, Frank was not left behind, just like other kids of his age he joined the step dance class however with time he opted out and joined cinema. It is important to note despite the fact that step dancing is something that is practiced by majority of the Irish population; it did not go down well with the staunch Catholics since they felt it went against their teachings of the church. This is one thing that Frank tried to "correct" and make them (church) appreciate the importance of dance in the society and incorporate embrace it as a tool.

Apart from the popularity of the step dance in Ireland, in his memoir The Angela Ashes, the author has explained in contrast to the mentality that many people have the poor and the homeless that they cannot make an impact in the world and all they depend on is the Catholic church, he was able to overcome all the negative challenges that he faced as he grew up in the inner city sections of Ireland to make a meaningful contribution to the world of literature, arts and theatre (Mccourt, 1996).