Catholic Plurality Fuels Unification Pressure In N.Ireland

Belfast, Sept 22 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Sep, 2022 ) :Northern Ireland now has a Catholic plurality for the first time since the UK-run province was carved out as a Protestant fiefdom a century ago, census data revealed on Thursday.

The region was created in 1921 with an in-built Protestant majority, after pro-UK unionists had threatened civil war when the rest of Ireland achieved self-rule from Britain.

But since a 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of sectarian violence, demographics have been shifting towards the old Catholic minority, and the pro-Irish party Sinn Fein emerged on top in May elections.

Announcing new data from its 2021 census, Northern Ireland's statistics agency said 42.

31 percent of the population identified as Catholic, while 37.36 percent said they were Protestant or another Christian denomination.

The last census in 2011 showed 45 percent of the population identified as Catholic, with 48 percent saying they were from a Protestant or other Christian background.

Immigration by other groups has diluted both their shares, but the Catholic proportion is growing stronger.

The latest figures could add urgency to calls from Sinn Fein and other pro-Irish nationalists for a referendum, known as a border poll, on the unification with the Republic of Ireland.