Irish Catholic
Irish Catholics is a term used to describe
Irish people or people of Irish descent who are of
Roman Catholic background.
The term is of note due to Irish emigration in the colonies of the British empire. This particularly occurred during the Irish Famine of the 1840s. The term has currency in the
United Kingdom, the
United States,
Canada,
Australia, and
New Zealand. These nations were or are majority Protestant hence both aspects, being Catholic and being Irish, at times separated them from the majority culture. In the United States hostility to both these aspects was expressed through the
Know-Nothing movement and general
Nativism.
The term can also relate to some of the elements unique to Catholicism and Catholic culture in Ireland. In particular it was farther north than any Catholic nation in Western Europe and was also ruled by a Protestant, or Anglican, nation. They also came from a Celtic and Viking culture rather than a Romance, Germanic, or Slavic one.
'Irish Catholic' is also used to distinguish catholic inhabitants of Ireland from the
Ulster-Scots, and the North American descendents of Irish catholic emigrants from the
Scots-Irish.
*
Irish diaspora*
Saint Patrick's Day*
Anti-Catholicism*
Library of Congress*
The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America, describes the book ISBN 0-8132-0896-3
*
On Irish Catholics of Australia
