Protestant decline in Ireland

Concentration of Protestants in Ireland by county

The Protestant decline in Ireland refers to the decline in the Protestant population in Ireland since the 1860s, particularly in the southern regions of what now constitutes the Republic of Ireland, as well as the southern and western areas of Northern Ireland.

The institutionalized privileges of the Protestant minority had begun to be undermined by the demise of the Penal Laws from the late 18th century on, staunching the flow of Catholic converts to Protestantism. This translated to a decline in the Protestant population following the 1861 disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, the transfer of land ownership from Protestant Ascendancy to Catholic tenantry with the Irish Land Acts which began in the late 19th century, and the introduction of more democratic principles of government throughout that century and into the 20th.^[1] The decline affected all socio-economic classes. A decline in sectarianism outside Ulster during the 19th century which contributed to a rise in mixed marriages, and the disproportionate tendency of Protestant women to marry soldiers from Great Britain and then emigrate with them (and the resulting tendency of many Protestant men to look for wives among the Catholic population), were also factors.^[2] The end of World War I and consequent end of war-related industry in Dublin saw a migration of skilled Protestant workers to Britain.

Districts of Northern Ireland near the Irish border saw a 12% decline in their Protestant population during the Troubles, as Ulster Protestants moved east and north to areas where they were in the majority.^[3] In recent decades, Ulster Protestant migrants to Britain have been more likely to remain there than their Catholic counterparts.^[4]

The phenomenon became a part of the ongoing secularization, which affects virtually all of Europe.

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