From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 01:42 PM

"There are figures floating around that show the Protestant population as having plunged, but as I understand it, these are based on misunderstandings of the census figures, which were all-Ireland figures before the Free State (1922-today) but Republic-of-Ireland-only figures from 1922 on; this artificially made it appear that the Protestant population had plunged, since the northern counties are more heavily populated with Protestants."

I'm not aware of what figures you have seen personally, though I can tell you that figures have been produced with proper adjustments made to show the Protestant population of the 26 counties both pre- and post-partition. There was a sharp drop in the number of Protestants for the five or ten years before and after the Free State split from Ireland, and then a steady decline until today. The demographics are aas follows:

The population of Protestants as a percentage of the total population of the 26 counties during the period of 1891 to 1911 remained roughly constant.

The percentage of Protestants dropped sharply from 1911 to 1926 (by 30%: down from around 10% to about 7%).

The population decline of Protestants has continued at a reasonably constant rate from 1926 until the present day: the percentage of Protestants in the Republic of Ireland today is less than 3% - down from 7% in 1926.

Perhaps you have been presented with figures that suggest the Protestant population dropped from over 10% to less than 3%.. which is true. But the reason for that is likely due, by the most part, to an exodus of Protestants from Southern Ireland (particularly from border counties).

It is, I think, more important to focus on the period of relative peace after 1926, and compare any change in population from then until now.


"After all, the 'armed struggle' had fallen virtually silent in the 1960s; it only revived when thousands of Catholics were burned out, driven from their homes and refused civil rights in the late 1960s.

Mostly people become violent as a last resort."

That's certinaly one way of looking at it. Of course, we all know that "the Protestants" just became violent for no reason...