Irish Catholic
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Setanta747 (Talk | contribs)
term doesn't always specifically apply to active RCs
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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. There was also a previous schism in the era of Celtic Christianity which may have had some impact on the culture.