However, views on actual church dogma both on social and spiritual matters varies significantly, and weekly mass attendance is below 40%.

Patrick being sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine I, a territory later regarded, by Rome, through an interpretation of the Donation of Constantine, as one of its Ecclesiastical fief.

The crown of the territory later formally gifted by Rome, in 1555, through Pope Paul IV's bull "Ilius, per quem Reges regnant", to Philip II of Spain and Mary I of England.

[4] The United Kingdom envoy at that time was the count de Salis, a Catholic landowner in County Limerick who was not a supporter of Irish nationalism.

"[5] His Minister for Foreign Affairs Desmond FitzGerald was sent to the Holy See to put forward the government's point of view and its opinion of Monsignor Luzio.

[6] This was in part because the commencement of diplomatic relations after Ireland's War of Independence most Irish bishops felt that a nunciature would reduce their authority.

FitzGerald even asked for Alibrandi to be declared persona non-grata but Cosgrave would not agree to the proposal[7] In September 1979 Pope John Paul II made the first papal visit to Ireland.

[9][10][11][12] Prior to the second reigning papal visit, Francis had spent time studying English in Dublin in 1980, as Fr Jorge Bergoglio.

[14] Following an electoral victory, the Fine Gael government led by Enda Kenny took stronger steps against the church in Ireland.

"[16] On 25 July 2011 the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Leanza was recalled to the Secretariat of State of the Holy See "for consultations" as a sign, among other things, of "surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions".

[17] Some confidential communications written by an American diplomat assigned to the Vatican were published as part of WikiLeaks, and revealed difficulties in the relationship between the Holy See and the Republic of Ireland during the investigation of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Shortly after the release of the Cloyne report on Church handling of abuse and shortly before the closure of the embassy, Enda Kenny criticised the Vatican's approach to the sex abuse crisis in the Dáil: "Far from listening to evidence of humiliation and betrayal with St Benedict’s 'ear of the heart'... the Vatican’s reaction was to parse and analyse it with the gimlet eye of a canon lawyer".

On 17 April 2013, he replied "The Government decision in November 2011 to close our resident embassy to the Holy See was taken with considerable reluctance as part of a necessary budget process to reduce costs.

I am satisfied that the current arrangement for Ireland’s representation at the Holy See is the most effective possible in light of the resource constraints faced by my Department.

[27] On 11 November 2014, the then–newly appointed Irish Ambassador to the Holy See, Emma Madigan presented her Letters of Credence to Pope Francis.