Are we seeing the last of priests and nuns?

THIRTY years of secularisation and various scandals, combined with increasingly negative media coverage and public disillusionment, have contributed to a drastic decline in religious vocations.

Now, as an increasingly elderly population of priests and nuns retires or dies, there are not nearly enough new vocations to replace them.

The future looks stark for the traditional, highly clerical model of Irish Catholicism.

The topic is explored in two separate documentaries on RTÉ1 next week

First up, in The Last Priests In Ireland on Monday at 9.35pm on RTÉ 1, actor and comedian Ardal O’Hanlon examines the role of Catholic priests in Irish life, from earliest times to the present day, to see how they shaped lives for better or for worse.

Raised in a typically devout Catholic family and educated by priests, Ardal asks what we would be losing, if the present generation of Irish priests really were the last.

Who, if anyone, would perform their function in Irish society – their moral influence, their social contribution, their role in so many people’s rituals of ‘hatching, matching and dispatching’? Or could we do without them completely in the modern and future world?

Neither an elegy nor an assault on religion and Catholicism, the documentary is an engaging, thought-provoking and compelling look at the unique role and contribution of Catholic priests in Irish life.

In a companion programme on RTÉ1 on Tuesday at 10.15pm, broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald presents the documentary The Last Nuns In Ireland.

Here, she examines the role of these women, to see how they have shaped Irish lives, including her own, for better or for worse.

If these really are ‘The Last Nuns in Ireland’, will we miss them?

Convent-educated Dearbhail looks at the role of female religious sisters in Ireland, from earliest times to the present day, to see how they have shaped Irish lives – for better or for worse.

The average age for Irish nuns is now over 80 – they are, quite literally, a dying breed. This is the context and spur for the film by Dearbhail, who cut her teeth as a young journalist reporting on the clerical and institutional abuse scandals.

In a society where ‘the nuns’ once ran practically every element of our education, healthcare and social services, she asks can we acknowledge the achievements of these women as we deal with the legacy of the scandals?