Jump to content

Interesting development in Northern Ireland


Salt n Vinegar

Recommended Posts

First item on the James O'Brien prog on LBC might cause a bit of a buzz. 

The census reveals that for the first time, Roman Catholics outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland.  

O'Brien saying it's possibly the end of the Union. Don't know if I'd go as far as that, but it's certainly constitutionally interesting. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wonder why somebody called James O'Brien would lead with that story. Unionists will actually be quite relieved by these numbers. As usual the demographic shift has failed to live up to all the hype. Best to check out websites like Slugger O'Toole for what's really happening in NI:

https://www.sluggerotoole.com/2022/09/21/what-tomorrows-census-results-will-tell-us-and-just-as-importantly-what-it-will-not/

...The term Protestant is (as has been the case in mainland UK for most of the late sovereign’s reign) is becoming less and less relevant even for religiously observant members of what we used to call the Reformed Faith.

As I argued in that review those areas which see the largest number stating they are neither Protestant nor Catholic are almost exclusively in majority Protestant areas (like North Down, 12% against an NI average of 5.6% in 2011 and 2.7% in west Belfast)...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's just mental that people would vote according to religion though (next you'll be telling us that some chose their football team by that method)

How many of those are practising Catholics or Protestants......what does it say about the worlds fastest growing religion - aethism?

I really do like James O'Brien and there is very little that he says that I disagree with.....great that he led on this story this morning

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Caledonian1 said:

It's just mental that people would vote according to religion though (next you'll be telling us that some chose their football team by that method)

How many of those are practising Catholics or Protestants......what does it say about the worlds fastest growing religion - aethism?

I really do like James O'Brien and there is very little that he says that I disagree with.....great that he led on this story this morning

Presumably you meant atheism, but that isn't a religion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Caledonian1 said:

It's just mental that people would vote according to religion though (next you'll be telling us that some chose their football team by that method)

How many of those are practising Catholics or Protestants......what does it say about the worlds fastest growing religion - aethism?

I really do like James O'Brien and there is very little that he says that I disagree with.....great that he led on this story this morning

It’s not really surprising considering the reasons behind partition 

You didn’t have to be a practicing catholic to suffer from the discrimination that was rampant in NI

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad some people are not overreacting here 

TUV website

Commenting on the 2021 Census results, TUV leader Jim Allister said:-

“The fact that the Catholic population in Northern Ireland has flourished presents a telling contrast with the near extinction of the Protestant population in the Republic.

“Those who make a read across from the Catholic population to support for Irish unity demonstrate for them just how sectarian that project is.

“The rise in the number of people identifying as Catholics has been going on for decades and yet the nationalist vote in this year’s Assembly election is almost identical to that in the first Assembly election in 1998.

“The Union is a union with benefits for all, ranging from free medical care to financial wherewithal when it comes to Covid or energy crisis assistance.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 years ago people like Tim Pat Coogan were convinced the end of NI was just around the corner for the turgid tribal headcount reasons that underpin this thread. This time Roman Catholic numbers went from 45.1% to 45.7%. Hardly the stuff of nightmares for DUP and TUV politicians given the significant numbers of Polish and Portuguese people who arrived pre-Brexit form part of that trend.

The long since faded baby boom that led to all the hype back in the day gets balanced out by heavier out migration by people from a Irish Roman Catholic background. There might be a pro-UI majority eventually but intellectual persuasion will have to be involved. Birthrates were supposed to have long since done the job by now but haven't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The census also said 29% of respondents consider themselves only "Irish" which  doesn't exactly scream border poll time.

I've seen quite a lot of people smugly tweeting this who will have a meltdown when people start making similar points about demographics when the English census results are published.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...