percentage of protestants in northern ireland

Megan Specia is a correspondent on the International Desk in London, covering the United Kingdom and Ireland. [13][14] It was during the 2002-2006 period that the number of members of the Church of Ireland and Presbyterian Church surpassed their 1946 totals. [32] Few Presbyterians seemed to choose returning to their native Scotland. [34][35][36] Ulster Protestants also share common religious, political and social ties with some protestants in counties that border Ulster, particularly County Leitrim that hosts a number of Orange Halls. Northern Irish Catholics are becoming less devout - The Economist Gregg R.J. (1972) "The Scotch-Irish Dialect Boundaries in Ulster" in Wakelin M. F.. C. Macafee (2001) "Lowland Sources of Ulster Scots" in J.M. [5] During this period the number of Protestants in what became the Irish Free State dropped from 10% to 7%. [14], The following table shows the percentage change between each census for the three main Protestant denominations in what is now the Republic of Ireland from 1901 to 2011:[13], The following table shows the annual percentage change for the three main Protestant denominations in what is now the Republic of Ireland from 1901 to 2011:[13]. Census 2021: More from Catholic background in NI than Protestant 200-2. In 2011, 48 per cent of people identified as being either Protestant or from a Protestant background, compared to 45 per cent who were Catholic. By 1622 there was a total settler population of about 19,000,[15] and by the 1630s it is estimated there were up to 50,000.[16]. The number of people holding an Ireland passport solely or jointly rose from 375,800 in 2011 to 614,300 in 2021, an increase of 63.5 per cent. Census 2021 results show that 46% of our population are now Catholic, while 43% are Protestant or another Christian religion. [22], Between 1640 and 1641, Protestants and Catholics alike in the Irish Parliament united in opposition to Wentworth, and pushed for the Gracesfirst arranged in 1628to be confirmed as well as filing lists of complaints about his behaviour and practices. Other religions (Christian & non-Christian) None/Not Stated [38] The Hearts of Steel, however, took to performing secretive actions in the middle of the night. Catholics outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland for the first time since its creation, according to census results published on Thursday. [33] By the 1820s they became victims of sectarian grief at the hands of Catholic agrarian societies, which further encouraged Palatine emigration from Ireland, resulting in them ceasing to be a separate grouping. Between 1990 and 2017 the proportion of the population aged 16 and over reporting as Protestant has dropped from 56% to 42%, while the proportion reporting as Catholic increased from 38% to 41%.. [17], In regards to immigration, of the 137,048 people from the three main Protestant denominations (Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist) to declare their country of birth, only 94,889 (69.2%) stated the Republic. In 1861 only the west coast and Kilkenny were less than 6% Protestant. Instead, the leading party was Sinn Fin, a mainly Catholic and pro-unity group, and formerly the political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, which until the 1990s had waged an armed campaign to end British rule. Olivia O'Hagan tried to keep out of politics. It probably moves the conversation on Irish unity a little bit closer, but there is still a good deal that would need to change.. This led to the passing of the Act of Supremacy in 1536, which declared King Henry VIII of England to be the head of the Church of Ireland. [18] This was followed by the Plantation of Ulster, which saw Protestant[citation needed] British settlers colonise these counties. [9] Dissenter marriages would not be legally recognised until an act passed in 1842. Throughout the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, several plantations occurred seeing the arrival of British settlers, the majority of which were Protestant. . [15] It has been suggested that Catholic Ireland has become more Protestant in social terms, whilst Protestantism itself has become more Catholic in some of its practices. [4] With few exceptions the Irish Catholic hierarchy conformed. Politically, most are unionists and loyalists, who have an Ulster British identity and want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. About 500,000 people hold only an Irish passport, and approximately another 100,000 hold it jointly with another passport. Oxford Companion to Irish History, pp. [25], By the 1660s, Catholics owned hardly more than one-fifth of land. The effect of Protestant depopulation in the Republic of Ireland is dramatic. By 1920 the British government had purchased 13 million acres (53,000km2) of Irish land and sold farms to the Irish tenants at low payments spread over seven decades. The proportion of the resident. The figure in the same geographical area was over 10% in 1891, indicating a fall of 70% in the relative Protestant population over the past century. [32], Eventually groups of tenants, some of which became movements such as the Hearts of Steel, Hearts of Oak and the Whiteboys, started to commit acts of crime against their landlords to raise awareness of their grievances. . 205-7. It changes the balance, more than a hundred years after Northern Ireland was engineered deliberately to have a Protestant majority, said Theresa Reidy, a professor of political scientist at University College Cork. [2] Important factors for this emigration were socio-economic factors, reinforced by political factors. Those involved in planning the plantation saw it as a means of controlling, anglicising,[12] and "civilising" Ulster. First her sister was abducted and shot. Percentage of the population by current religion Catholic. [19] The rebellion had a lasting psychological impact on the Ulster Protestant community and they commemorated its anniversary for two centuries. This terminated both state support and parliament's role in its governance, but also took into government ownership much church property. Census 2021: Catholics outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland for [North set for a long 'demographic stalemate'], [The Twelfth of July: 'A day in for Catholics, a day out for Protestants'], [Susan McKay: Northern Protestants at a crossroads]. [25][28] It also greatly increased the number of Protestants in Ireland,[25] and saw them come to dominate both the countryside and urban centres and have near absolute control over politics and trade. [13] This was followed by the considerably determined private plantation of counties Antrim and Down by James Hamilton and Sir Hugh Montgomery, which saw English and Scottish Protestants settling in their estates. One local man says: "Many of the people here are in the Orange Order, and there would still be that political attachment to Northern Ireland." Not that people in Drum, the population of which . [8][9] The compulsory teaching of the Irish language in schools saw some Protestant parents send their children to school in the United Kingdom. In the 2011 census of Northern Ireland, 48% (883,768) described themselves as Protestant, which was a decline from approximately 50% from the 2001 census. [41] Whilst these MPs had few ideological objections to making Henry VIII head of the Irish church as well as to the establishment of Anglicanism in Ireland under Elizabeth I, resistance to government policies started to grow. [12][24] This was followed by puritan ministers who held Presbyterian sympathies being dismissed from the church,[12] causing some of the leading ministers to make an abortive attempt to reach America hoping to find more liberty for their beliefs. A further blow to the concept of a Protestant state came earlier this year in regional elections, when the hard-line, pro-Britain Democratic Unionist Party lost its place as the largest faction in Northern Irelands assembly. Figures before 2002 only include Church of Ireland, Presbyterians, & Methodists. [37] Not until the Armagh disturbances in the 1780s did sectarian divisions come back to the fore. [35] By late 1711 only around 1,200 of the Palatines remained in Ireland. As the official established church, the Church of Ireland was funded partially by tithes imposed on all Irish landowners and tenant farmers, irrespective of the fact that it counted only a minority of the populace among its adherents; these tithes were a source of much resentment which occasionally boiled over, as in the Tithe War of 1831/36. [9], The Church of Ireland by the 1630s was a broad church that accepted various different Protestant practices and beliefs. [4], A return to Catholic supremacy ensued during the reign of Queen Mary I, in the 1550s. [9], Despite being the target of various penal laws, Dissenters remained vocal advocates of those that targeted Catholics so kept their complaints to a courteous tone. Starting in 1923 the Irish government bought out most of the remaining British landowners, and they and their families departed Ireland. There is also a small Methodist community and the Methodist Church in Ireland dates to John Wesley's visit to Ulster in 1752. Michelle ONeill outside of Northern Irelands Parliament in Belfast in May. As the Presbyterian church was not yet established in Ireland, Presbyterians were more than happy to join the Church of Ireland,[23] which then exercised a good deal of tolerance and understanding. Religion and national identity are not always the same thing in Northern Ireland there are Catholic Unionists and Protestant Nationalists. [7] The coverage of the 1936 census results by The Irish News in 1939 was later reprinted by the Ulster Unionist Council as vindication for their belief of what would happen to Irish Protestants as a whole in a united Ireland under home rule. Decline after creation of the Irish Free State. [41] This resulted in Ulster alone returning 38 MPs to the Irish Parliament with the three other provinces altogether contributing 36, giving the government a majority of 32. 452-3. [32] Whilst they were anti-Catholic and helped populate landlords' estates along with other Dissenters, they suffered from political, religious and economic restrictions. 504-505. The remainder of the Protestant population is fragmented among dozens of smaller religious groupings. The number of people living in the North who were born outside the UK and Ireland is now at 6.5 per cent, the highest recorded in Northern Ireland. [25] Some Presbyterians also returned to Scotland during this period, where the Presbyterian Church of Scotland was the state religion. 20%. The Ulster Protestant community emerged during the Plantation of Ulster. More recent figures from 2016 show that among those of working age 44% are now Catholic and 40%. [31] Ironically, despite attempts by some,[36] the Ascendancy had no real desire to convert the mass of the Catholic population to Protestantism, fearing that it would dilute their own exclusive and highly privileged position,[31] and many of the penal laws were poorly enforced. After World War I, the weakened British Empire faced an armed campaign for independence in Ireland. [40], Prior to the Plantation of Ulster in the opening decades of the 17th century, the Irish Parliament consisted of Catholic Old English and Gaelic Irish MPs. Megan Specia reported from London and Ed OLoughlin reported from Dublin. What percentage of people are protestants in Ireland? - Answers [15] The Border reiver families were not known for their religiousness and the Reformation had made little impact on them. [13][14], The cause of this growth is stated as being a mixture of Protestant immigration and the conversion of Catholics. More Catholics than Protestants in Northern Ireland for first time Changes in unionist identity during the Northern Ireland Peace Process", "Leitrim Lodge takes part in Orange Order March", "Linda Ervine: I realised Irish belonged to me - a Protestant - and I fell in love with it", "Protestants go for Gaelic in Northern Ireland", Amity and enmity: variety in Ulster Protestant culture, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ulster_Protestants&oldid=1156647471, Ethnic groups divided by international borders, Ethnoreligious groups in the United Kingdom, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Hiberno-English, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 23 May 2023, at 22:22. More recent figures from 2016 show that among those of working age 44% are now Catholic and 40%. [22], There were tensions between the two main groups of Ulster Protestants; Scottish Protestant migrants to Ulster were mostly Presbyterian[23] and English Protestants mostly Anglican. Most Ulster Protestants speak Ulster English, and some on the north-east coast and in East Donegal speak with the Ulster Scots dialects. Since the formation of Northern Ireland which remained part of the United Kingdom when the island was partitioned in 1921, while the larger part of the island became an independent Irish state Protestants have outnumbered Catholics. [ Census results: More Catholics than Protestants in Northern Ireland for first time ] . Their work was printed in 1602. The Irish Church Act 1869 (which took effect in 1871) finally ended the role of the Church of Ireland as state church. The Protestant depopulation in the Republic of Ireland during 1891-1991 was dramatic. [3] World War I battle deaths also hit the Protestant population hard, which further spurred a migration of young Irish Protestant women to Britain to seek husbands. It has led to bouts of violence and political upheaval, notably in the Irish Confederate Wars, Cromwellian conquest of Ireland the Williamite War, the Armagh disturbances, Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Irish revolutionary period, and the Troubles. The percentage of Protestant's population in Northern Ireland is - Toppr The work of translating the Old Testament was undertaken by Dr William Bedel (15711642), Bishop of Kilmore, who completed his translation within the reign of Charles I, although it was not published until 1680 in a revised version by Dr Narcissus Marsh (16381713), Archbishop of Dublin. The introduction of a "Gaelicisation" policy. The loss of the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland was a significant development, he said, although much has changed in the past hundred years. What were the Troubles that ravaged Northern Ireland? Some would call this a healthy development", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Protestantism_in_Ireland&oldid=1151871384. The plantation was also meant to sever Gaelic Ulster's links with the Gaelic Highlands of Scotland. The British government agreed to withdraw from the nationalist south, which became an independent state, and the island was partitioned. However, this met with hostility within the Church and was opposed even by those who had previously conformed. Depending on the strand of Mormonism, some may identify with traditional Protestant beliefs, whilst others may not. July 13, 2021. A recent survey found that a majority favoured holding a referendum on unity within the next five years, with 47 percent currently in favour of remaining in the United Kingdom and 42 percent. Religion in Northern Ireland - Wikipedia However, following the conforming of the majority of these landowners by 1780, Catholics only owned 5% despite making up three-quarters of the population of Ireland. [38] For the Hearts of Steel it was evictions and rents. Medieval Ireland An Encyclopedia, p. 409. [6] Elizabeth's reign saw the introduction of a Gaelic printing typeface (1571) for the purpose of evangelisation;[7][8] the establishment of Trinity College, Dublin, to train ministers (1592);[6] and the first translation of the New Testament into Irish (1603). On the question of identity, the percentage of people who said they were British only fell from about 40 per cent to 32 per cent, while those who said they were Irish only increased from 25 per cent to 29 per cent. The new figures show a total of 45.7 per cent of people in the North are either Catholic or from a Catholic background, compared to 43.5 per cent who are Protestant or from other Christian denominations. The gap between the proportion of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland has narrowed, new census figures revealed today. Protestant-Catholic gap narrows as census results revealed [2] Irish independence in 1921 however may have accelerated the process.[3]. Do Northern Ireland unionists need to be worried? - The Independent [1], The Irish Free State had few overt discriminatory religious policies against Protestants and prided itself on its treatment of religious minorities. [20] In the war that followed, a Scottish Covenanter army invaded and re-captured eastern Ulster from the rebels, while a Protestant settler army held northwestern Ulster. the percentage of people from ethnic minority groups has doubled (though only to 3.4 per cent) since the . [39] Whilst the Volunteers were formed as a defensive force, they quickly became involved in politics.[39]. According to the census numbers, some 45.7 percent of Northern Irelands population is or was raised Catholic, while 43.5 percent are Protestant or raised in another Christian religion. Figure 3: Percentage of the population by current religion (1861 - 2021) 0%. The results showed a dramatic increase in the percentage of people in Northern Ireland holding an Irish passport solely or jointly since the 2011 census. Today, the vast majority of Ulster Protestants live in Northern Ireland, which was created in 1921 to have an Ulster Protestant majority, and in the east of County Donegal. Recommended [39], The outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1776 had an important impact on Ireland. The newly released 2021 results take that a step further. [2], From 1921 to 1991 there was a decrease in the Protestant population in the Irish Free State and then the Republic of Ireland, however by the 2002, there has been an increase in the three main Protestant denominations: Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, and Methodism. especially from the British civil service[2][5][7], According to the Church of Ireland Gazette: Protestants "have a wholly disproportionate number of old people compared with young, in comparison to Roman Catholics". [32] One way to alleviate problems was to gain the favour of the landlord. About one in six people belong to the next biggest Protestant denomination, the Anglican Church of Ireland. At first, this was often attributed to the Catholic Churchs opposition to family planning, and the resulting large Catholic families. Religious identity is not as central to political identity as it was a hundred years ago. [32], During the 17th century the Dissenter population was low. The Church of Ireland made provision in 1870 for its own government, led by a General Synod, and with financial management by a Representative Church Body. [9], Cosgrove writes that Protestant children were treated fairly and at times given preferential treatment in the education system. A total of 4.6 per cent had a main language other than English, the most prevalent being Polish (20,100), Lithuanian (9,000) and Irish (6,000). Bedell had also undertaken a translation of the Book of Common Prayer in 1606. Thats possibly a more accurate reflection of a growing situation in Northern Ireland of this willingness to have hybrid identities reflecting this post-agreement generation, Professor Hayward said, pointing to the Good Friday Agreement. [12] In this instance a local Protestant woman who had married a Roman Catholic fled to Belfast after failing to honour her promise to educate her children as Roman Catholics. [21] This policy was used in the counties of Leitrim, Longford, northern Wexford, as well as parts of King's County and Queen's County. [19][20] Whilst a substantial number of English and Scottish people did come over and settle during the Plantation of Ulster, they tended to disperse to other parts of the province resulting in those tasked with settling the land having to retain native Irish who remained predominantly Catholic. A strong majority in Ireland mostly Roman Catholics who identified ethnically with the islands original Gaelic inhabitants supported independence. Two tribes: A divided Northern Ireland - The Irish Times
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