Does Religion have a place in our society?

Is there a place for religion in our modern society? That is a tough question and on that is very much taboo in our Irish culture as we have always been a society where we embraced the Catholic Church. In my parents generation religion was a part of every day life; my mum would say prayers at every meal and before bed. Growing up we would have always went to mass on a Sunday morning until going out on Saturday nights got in the way. I don’t go to mass and don’t consider myself to be religious but I still believe in my faith. I feel this is the same way for many people my age; we just don’t have time to go to mass and may even view it as being uncool. I also feel that the abuse many people suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church has lead many people to loosing their faith. Fighting in the North of Ireland and religious sectarianism I feel has also lead to religion not having a place in society today. People have seen first hand the hurt and damage done by fighting and even practising your religion can do so this I fee has also been a factor in less people practising their religion.
As Ireland is now a multicultural society and different religions come hand in hand with that. We have now been exposed to new religions and maybe see the holes in our own? Our society is now not dominated by the Catholic Church. I would like to think that every religion now has a place in our society but I am not too sure. I read an article recently that a French woman had went to the European court of human rights and won her case that religious symbols did not have a place in the class room. Do I fee this is right? No i don’t, if a child is attending a Catholic or Muslim school do they not hold the right to display their religious symbols? I feel that they do. I feel it is things like this that is slowly nudging religion even more so out of our society. However i do feel that religion should not be forced upon us and we all should have a right to choose our own “God”. For most people religion is a personal thing. At this moment i feel that religion is still very much still intergraded into our Irish society, we still get our children christened, they receive their Holy Communion and conformation, we still have religious weddings and funerals. Maybe in the next generation this may change but I feel that religion still has a place in society maybe even more than what we are aware of.