No, the Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK at all. They declare no allegiance to Britain’s monarch; that ended in 1948 when the Free State became the Republic. It’s the Republic that is majority Catholic.
Oooops — I MADE A MISTAKE — bad — I APOLOGIZE :(
The country I was talking about in that post was NORTHERN IRELAND.
I wrote **Republic of Ireland** — BY MISTAKE. [should have just gone to bed.]
Which gives an entirely different meaning to it all.
===== below I repeat my post, with the correct name of country I was talking about: ==========
I guess all of NORTHERN IRELAND identifies as British, being as it is part of UK.
FYI I happened to hear, a few years ago, that the number of Catholic school children has surpassed number of Protestants.
Have continued to wonder what the Ps will get around to changing to keep things in their favor :(
The Priests, at www.thepriests.org !SonySuperstars, 3 Catholic Priests, who have sung around the world and for 3 Popes, from Northern Ireland, so admittedly intelligent.
Have a story of being refused to be sent to school after grade school, because unqualified. Like how they handled the Catholics. If family wanted anymore education, they had to pay for it themselves :(