Kevin Myers
Thesis Title: The Road Home: A Study of Afterlife Perceptions, Beliefs and Practices in Contemporary Ireland
Supervisor: Prof Tom Inglis
My research examines contemporary Irish perceptions, beliefs and practices about the afterlife. The majority of Irish people are Catholic and the level of belief in God and heaven are high, but what is heaven and how do people get there. The Roman Catholic Church has historically held a monopoly in relation to Irish morality and how people attain salvation. Is this still the case?
My research examines to what extent people believe in salvation and follow the Church’s rules and regulations as a means of being saved. I argue that there is an increasing trend towards the Protestanisation of Irish Catholicism: Irish people depend much less on, what Inglis (1998) terms Legalist-Orthodox Principles and more on their own personal ethical standards in defining their morality. Are more Irish Catholics engaging in what Weber (1922) defined as inner worldly ascetic behaviour and as such have become increasingly rational and secular in their understanding of and approach to the afterlife. The process of secularisation – for example involving managing death, dying and loss, render heaven and hell less plausible and as such refocuses peoples attention away from the next world, toward the present, here and now. I am investigating the extent to which belief in the afterlife has become personal, diverse, marginal and displaced from central concerns.
Biographical Note:
I currently have an honours degree in both Sociology and History from the University College Cork. In 2006 I obtained an Honours Masters degree from the Department of Sociology at UCC, specialising in death and meaning in contemporary Ireland..
Email: kevin.myers@ucdconnect.ie
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