Irish Catholic
Encyclopedia : I : IR : IRI : 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 Britain, 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 culture rather than a Romance, Germanic, or Slavic one. In addition the majority had their civil and human rights restricted by their English overlords through a seies of Penal laws designed to eradicate their religion by cutting off the haed (priests were killed on detection) resulting in an elevated status for clergy.
See also
External links
- [Library of Congress]
- [The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America], describes the book ISBN 0-8132-0896-3
- [On Irish Catholics of Australia]
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