Pretty sad article. It seems the Irish are trying to achieve standard Western European liberal secularism at a breakneck pace. Judging from the young Irish I've spoken to, values and traditions of all kinds are being abandoned for a sort of low commercial culture. Unfortunately the Irish Catholic Church, badly weakened already by the revolution of VAT II, is in no condition to hang onto a generation raised in a whirlwind. It really looks like Ireland is undergoing some sort of massive socio-cultural breakdown, and I hope the Irish regain their senses before everything decent is sacrificed to the idol of modernism.
If you revisit the article, it becomes quite evident that VAT II had nothing to do with this loss of faith. If anything, the primary reason given is that the Church refuses to keep up with modern times - it is too orthodox. That is what is so revealing in this story.
The Irish have always been their own worst enemy...and now it seems to have slowly crept into the Church. They are now worshipping at the altar of the Almighty Euro.