The Irony of the Turkish Republic

In both cases religious identification became a symbolic boundary creating distinct in groups and out groups that help define national belonging. Irish Catholicism and Turkish Islam provided a central core of cultural symbols memories and attitudes around which national identity could be formed. Both nations were always conceived in opposition to the cultural and political threat posed by distinct others. Similar processes end up happening in Ireland even though as you said we have more of a sense today of Catholicism in particular being woven into the foundation of the government itself.