Digital Devotion and Online Sacred Space: The Bahá’í Community in Ireland

The study of sacred space has traditionally centered on fixed, physical locations integral to religious experience. However, decentralized religious movements like the Bahá’í Faith—lacking clergy and permanent places of worship—challenge conventional models of sacredness and community formation. While digital religion scholarship has explored how hierarchical traditions adapt to online spaces, it has not sufficiently examined how decentralized faiths construct sacredness in deterritorialized, networked environments. This study employs multi-sited digital ethnography to analyze how Bahá’ís in Ireland engage with transnational digital networks to sustain religious identity, communal belonging, and governance. Through virtual study circles, devotional meetings, feasts, and interfaith dialogues, digital platforms constitute sacred space rather than merely extending religious practice. The shift to online participation alters community relations by increasing accessibility and global engagement, but it also generates tensions between local and transnational religious networks