Catholics 'feel alienated' from UK

[Baluarte]

Northern Ireland Catholics feel alienated from the United Kingdom but do not feel a united Ireland is a realistic prospect, a new academic survey has revealed.

The number of people believing Irish unity is very unlikely has now risen to 41%, with fewer Catholics than Protestants expecting it.

The study also highlighted a significant drop in the number of people wishing to remain in the UK - down from 72% to 63% since 2010 - the lowest since devolution in 2007 especially among Catholics.

Duncan Morrow, of the University of Ulster, said: "These results confirm that the hybrid nature of Northern Ireland as a shared space sharply and persistently divided over questions of national identity is unchanged.

"However, this does not translate into a similar division over constitutional status, where there is little evidence of any strong desire for Irish unity at present."

The findings were recorded in the annual Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey carried out by the University of Ulster and Queen's University of Belfast (QUB).

It found a marked rise in the percentage of people describing their national identity as Irish - up from 26% in 2010 to 32% in 2012. But the proportion of people who said they were Northern Irish had fallen from a historic high of 29% three years ago to 22% in 2012.

This included a significant drop in the number of Catholics calling themselves Northern Irish, which was down from 26% to 17% - the lowest in more than a decade. There has been a jump in the percentage of Protestants calling themselves British from 60% to 68%.

The annual survey records public attitudes to a wide range of social issues and is aimed at providing insights into the changing nature of Northern Ireland politics and society.

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Completely understandable. Protestants show their true allegiance.

My sympathy for the Irish

[alfieb]

Oh, you're British, eh?

Great Britain is that other island over there... feel free.

Solidarity with my Catholic brothers.

[riverman]

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Completely understandable. Protestants show their true allegiance.

My sympathy for the Irish

Irish is an ethnicity, not a religious denomination.

[Baluarte]

Read the article and get some context.

[Baluarte]

I suppose that since the very term "Irish" is related to the free Republic of Ireland and its mostly Catholic people, they find it easier to show allegiance to Westminster, the source of Anglicanism.

[Hurrem sultana]

No catholics in north Europe

[alfieb]

No Muhammadans in Europe.

[RussiaPrussia]

Catholics complaining...

[Baluarte]

No Muhammadans in Europe.

All remember Sigurd I Magnusson, called Sigurd the Crusader, the Norwegian King that took his military host across Europe, fighting Islam at every turn.



Ah the old days, where refugees and crocodile tearing asylum-seekers wouldn't sway the Christian spirit of Old Europe.

"After this they came to a castle in Muslim Al-Andalus called Sintra (Sintre - present day Sintra, Portugal, probably referring to Colares which is closer to the sea). They took the castle, and killed every man there as they had refused to be christened. Further they sailed to Lisbon, a "half Christian and half heathen" city, said to be the division between Christian and Muslim Iberia. There they won their third battle, and acquired great treasures."

"They were warmly welcomed, and Baldwin rode together with Sigurd to the river Jordan, and back again to Jerusalem.
The Norwegians were given much treasures and relics, including a splinter off the True Cross that allegedly Jesus himself had been crucified on. This was given on the condition that they would continue to promote Christianity and bring the relic to the burial site of St. Olaf.

Later Sigurd returned to his ships at Acre, and when king Baldwin were going to the heathen (i.e. Muslim) town of Sidon (Sætt) in Syria (Sýrland) Sigurd and his men accompanied him in the siege. The town was then taken and subsequently the Lordship of Sidon established."


Those days when the North still served the Faith.

[Loki]

No catholics in north Europe

^ This