A careful reading of my post whould show I said a large minority and an undercurrent of anti catholic feeling. Let me give a few examples. It is not the overt wont hire catholic prejudice of the northern counties of Ireland, but rather a certain discomfort. The other day, my dearest oldest friend and I were driving to london, and discussing the pending marrige of his daughter. Knowing my wife is a Catholic, he still said in surprised anger, when I mentioned his daughter was joking about learning catichisms... "He's going to make a Catholic out of her!!!" He was really disturbed! I mentioned this to my mother, and she told me that my VERY progressive anglo Irish father once confided in her that his greatest fear was that his sons would marry Catholics. In fact, both his sons did, because my father was remarkable enough, not only to hide his prejudices from us, but actively encourage us to work for Catholic rights. He, in fact, in the end, was the one who convinced my wife to accept my proposal of marrage. But, it is that which I refer to as an undercurrect in the culture. The discomfort with catholism which some, even progressive english people feel from years of subtle messages and not so subtle messages from a state religion. I do belive that it is passing in generations younger than mine. I hope so.
All the best
Larry