I never suggested there was outright persecution but there has to be some explanation for the % falling by about 70% at one point. Everything obviously couldn't have been as rosy as being suggested. Through pressure one way or another within the country people either left or stopped being Protestant. The pressure on children of mixed marriages to be brought up as Catholics being one example. I was just watching a documentary the other day where both Bob Geldof and Sinead O'Connor were bemoaning the overbearing presence of the Catholic church in the Ireland of their youth. I take it non Catholics could well have felt the same. I wouldn't class good and smooth integration as being the same as a group or community being drastically reduced in size. Surely you don't need to become Catholic to integrate with Catholics? Integratation here in the Scottish Borders is real enough. No one cares if you are a Catholic or Protestant! Unlike some other parts of Scotland....