Will Northern Ireland Soon Be Catholic?
The Cathedral of St. Anne in Belfast
What was inconceivable a century ago could soon become a reality: as of 2021, there will be more Catholics than Protestants in Northern Ireland.
The press agency Catholic News relayed this information in its online April 22, 2018 issue. Professor Paul Nolan, a specialist on sociology in Northern Ireland, declared to BBC News
...three years from now we will end up, I think, in the ironic situation on the centenary of the state where we actually have a (Protestant-born) state that has a Catholic majority.
Indeed, according to the most recent census in 2011, the Protestants only outnumbered the Catholics in Northern Ireland by 3%. More recent numbers show a majority of Catholics in every age group, except those over 60. When it comes to school-age children, the Catholics far outnumber the Protestants: 51% to 37%.
Historically in Ireland, it was mainly the Catholics who fought, often at the cost of their lives, for their country’s independence. The Irish Unionists, desirous of maintaining the political union with the United Kingdom, were mostly Protestant descendants of the colonists who settled in Ireland during the 17th century.
Source: Catholic News Agency / FSSPX.News – 4/30/2018
