Ulster Protestants

Ulster Protestants
Total population
Total ambiguous
(900,000–1,000,000)
Regions with significant populations
Northern Ireland827,500[1] (Self-identified)
(Northern Irish Protestants)
Republic of Ireland201,400[2] (Self-identified)
(Irish Anglicans)
(Irish Presbyterians)
(Irish Methodists)
(Other Irish Protestants)
Languages
Ulster English, Ulster Scots, Ulster Irish
Religion
Protestantism
(mostly Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, Pentecostalism, and Methodism)
Related ethnic groups
Ulster Scots, Anglo-Irish people, Irish people, Scottish people, English people, Scotch-Irish Americans, Scotch-Irish Canadians

Ulster Protestants are an ethnoreligious group[3][4][5][6][7] in the Irish province of Ulster, where they make up about 43.5% of the population. Most Ulster Protestants are descendants of settlers who arrived from Britain in the early 17th century Ulster Plantation. This was the settlement of the Gaelic, Catholic province of Ulster by Scots and English speaking Protestants, mostly from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England.[8] Many more Scottish Protestant migrants arrived in Ulster in the late 17th century. Those who came from Scotland were mostly Presbyterians, while those from England were mostly Anglicans (see Church of Ireland). There is also a small Methodist community and the Methodist Church in Ireland dates to John Wesley's visit to Ulster in 1752.[9] Although most Ulster Protestants descend from Lowland Scottish people (some of whose descendants consider themselves Ulster Scots), many descend from English, and to a lesser extent, from Irish, Welsh and Huguenots.[10][11]

Since the 17th century, sectarian and political divisions between Ulster Protestants and Irish Catholics have played a major role in the history of Ulster, and of Ireland as a whole. It has led to bouts of violence and political upheaval, notably in the Irish Confederate Wars, the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the Williamite War, the Armagh disturbances, Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Irish revolutionary period, and the Troubles. Today, the vast majority of Ulster Protestants live in Northern Ireland, which was created in 1921 to have an Ulster Protestant majority, and in the east of County Donegal. Politically, most are unionists, who have an Ulster British identity and want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom.

  1. ^ "Census 2021 main statistics for Northern Ireland (phase 1)". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. 7 September 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  2. ^ "8. Religion" (PDF). Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  3. ^ Hunt, Stephen (13 May 2016). "Chapter 7: Christians and Gays in Northern Ireland". Contemporary Christianity and LGBT Sexualities. ISBN 9781317160922. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  4. ^ Byrne, Sean (2000). Social Conflicts and Collective Identities. p. 94. ISBN 9780742500518. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  5. ^ It's never too late for 'us' to meet 'them': prior intergroup friendships moderate the impact of later intergroup friendships in educational settings. Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  6. ^ Ó Lúing, Seán (1953). Art Ó Griofa. Dublin: Sairséal agus Dill. p. 217.
  7. ^ NI Curriculum, Teachers' Notes, p. 54
  8. ^ "'Sheep stealers from the north of England': the Riding Clans in Ulster by Robert Bell". History Ireland. 24 January 2013.
  9. ^ "The Methodist Church in Ireland: History". Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  10. ^ "Ulster blood, English heart – I am what I am". nuzhound.com. Archived from the original on 27 July 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  11. ^ "The Huguenots in Lisburn". Culture Northern Ireland. 2 May 2006. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.