When Ireland's prime minister, Enda Kenny, dared to attack the Vatican's role in the alleged cover-up of child abuse, he unleashed an unprecedented row between the Catholic church and the Irish state, with Rome recalling its ambassador to Dublin, and one priest even comparing Kenny to Adolf Hitler.

But Kenny's speech last week has also won him thousands of letters of support, and revealed how – after centuries in which the Catholic church was a dominant force in Irish society – the influence of Rome has dwindled, leaving a country that is now more tolerant and secular than at any time in its history.

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