Moral Cultures in Northern Ireland

Abstract

In 1981, 1207 pupils 14–16 years of age attending Roman Catholic and Protestant schools in Northern Ireland were asked to assess the rightness or wrongness of 17 moral issues on a five-point scale. There was no significant difference between the responses of Roman Catholics and Protestants on drinking alcohol, drunkenness, lying, stealing, and drug taking. Protestants were more severe than Roman Catholics in their judgment on gambling and smoking. Roman Catholics were more severe than Protestants on the remaining 10 issues, including premarital sexual intercourse, artificial birth control, and divorce, all of which relate to traditional Roman Catholic teaching on sexual morality. Thus, while there was evidence of a common morality on some issues, there was also evidence that on other issues the conflicting views of Roman Catholics and Protestants were clearly reflected in the moral judgments made by pupils attending secondary schools.