No truth that it wasn't in communion in Rome. the Latin Church developed private confession because of the Irish (I think at least). The Irish reconverted a lot of Western and Central Europe in the Middle Ages. St. Patrick was a (Roman?) Catholic who was sent to convert the Irish. Yet even though St. Patrick was Catholic, he didn't convert the Irish Catholic???
It doesn't make sense. I suppose it's possible that there was some more freedom with discipline with the Irish since they were on an island with England, but the Faith was the same.