A UK Cadbury store has been accused of ‘erasing religion from Easter’ by selling so-called ‘Gesture Eggs’ in the run-up to the holidays.

It happened in an outlet store in Lincolnshire, but Cadbury has said they had "no involvement" in the promotion.

On Lunchtime Live today, caller Miriam from Wexford said it was just another attempt to remove Christianity from our holidays.

“It’s quite worrying as to why we feel the need to do this,” she said.

“These are very old historic festivals that are based on Christian ethos and they have been around for millennia.

“It seems we want to become all accepting, all inviting, we want to be non-discriminatory in so many ways but within that, we are actually losing what we are and what we have always been.”

Catholicism in Ireland

Miriam said Ireland is still a predominantly Catholic country and that should be respected.

“In our last census we had a Catholic population of nearly 70%, so that’s who we are as a country,” she said.

“We have been brought by our parents into the church and raised Catholics so, whether you are practicing or not, we are Catholics.

“We should be welcoming and inviting, but I also think if we keep trying to make Easter mean all things to all people, it will end up meaning nothing at all.”

'These things evolve'

Stuart told Lunchtime Live he didn’t see a problem with the Gesture egg.

“People can have their choice on whether they want to buy Easter or Gesture eggs but as long as nobody is saying you can’t practice Easter, then there’s no problem whatsoever,” he said.

“I think Christianity has to realise that Easter is an evolution of a pagan tradition brought back from an ancient pagan god called Eostre.

“These things evolve and it’s just evolving now into a very neutral place.”

'Beautiful' religion

Mildred from Roscommon told the show that Catholicism is a “beautiful” religion and must be protected.

“Without the death of Jesus on a cross and him rising from the dead on Easter Sunday morning, an egg wouldn’t make much difference,” she said.

“It’s our religion and we should not lose it.

“It’s a new life, that’s the significance of the egg, and it’s all about our Catholic religion - we should hold onto that as it’s what we have.”

Mildred asked that companies “leave our religion alone” when it comes to renaming products.

You can listen back here:

Main image: Cadbury's Easter Eggs. Image: Gordon Scammell / Alamy Stock Photo