The 2014 film Jimmy’s Hall, directed by the British socialist Ken Loach, tells the story of Jimmy Gralton, who in the 1930s led the precursor to the Communist Party of Ireland. Gralton and others gave lectures and held dances at the hall in a poor rural townland — until, at the behest of the local Catholic Church, it was violently shut down and Gralton was deported to the United States.

The movie highlights a longstanding feature of Irish society: the country’s citizens are more progressive than the country’s Church hierarchy would like to admit or portray to the outside world.

A similar dynamic was on display last week, when the Irish people voted in droves and by wide margins to legalize gay marriage — the first country to do so by popular referendum. While all four major political parties supported the measure, the 62 percent “yes” vote demonstrates a rejection of the fundamentally conservative structures that have shaped Irish lives for centuries.