Choyaa: Unionism left wandering between the winds…

Blue breath

The census results in Northern Ireland were as predictable as was much of the subsequent commentary and predictions. It can be easy to get drawn into this cycle of claim and counterclaim, but for Unionists to dismiss the results entirely would be foolish. The Union is not dead but there is a looming danger that some interpret as the inevitability of Unification; but what is beyond doubt is that Unionism’s current trajectory will not save the Union. Many of the …

Read more…

Census results released…

Macro photography of water and sunflower oil in different variations

The long-anticipated Census results are now out. You can find them here. The top line figures are 45.7% catholic compared to 43.48% Protestant We will have more posts on the census once people have had a chance to analyse the results in more detail. Brian O'NeillI help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not …

Read more…

Themmuns Vs Ussuns census results out next Thursday. Give your predictions…

Where is the love sung by The Black Eye Peas recreated in a tunnel underpass.

The most eagerly awaited census results since the Census of Quirinius are out next Thursday. Exact time confirmed – latest Census results for NI will be announced at 9.30am on Thursday next week. 🕤 — Mark Simpson (@BBCMarkSimpson) September 15, 2022 Will the catholic population be up, down, left or right? Will a border poll be demanded on the back of it all? Or will the real story be the growth of the ‘no religion, above us only sky? Imagine …

Read more…

Two “Communities” demographics: Don’t mention the Others

Roy Fisher does a deep dive into the census data, showing how it is almost impossible to opt out of the two communities model… “When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, ‘Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?’” – from The Wit and Wisdom of Quentin Crisp (1984) When the quotation above …

Read more…

Gerry Kelly: “The letter with the figures said it all because it dealt with anti-sectarianism and that’s the way I am…”

Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly is still squirming on the sectarian hook the party hoisted him on during his failed campaign in North Belfast during the UK parliamentary election. [Petard? – Ed]  Pardon you… After his party colleague, Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA, [Good heavens, you’re the Culture Minister?! – Ed], tried, and failed, to blame the Electoral Commission for Sinn Féin’s use of the 2011 census’ breakdown of the constituency by religion, or religion brought up in, to support the party’s claim that Gerry …

Read more…

Carál Ní Chuilín: “Electoral commission vetoed using last election figures…” – Update

David may not want to go there, although ‘idealistic’ wasn’t the first word that sprang to mind.  [Was it another word beginning with ‘i’? – Ed]  You might very well think that…  ANYhoo… Gerry Kelly’s Sinn Féin colleague in north Belfast, and the Northern Ireland Culture Minister, Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA, should, perhaps, have other things on her mind.  But, on Thursday, the Minister was on Twitter defending Sinn Féin’s use of the 2011 census’ breakdown of the constituency by religion in support of the party’s …

Read more…

Will unionism’s long 2012 be seen as the year when the wave broke?

With the #flegs protests seemingly diminishing, it seems like a good time to wrap up where 2012 has brought unionism, although it can be pretty much summed up in one word – crisis. It was a year in which there were early signs of modest progress visible to DUP leader Peter Robinson in March and by November he felt confident to proclaim that the constitutional debate had been won. And remember, in 2012 we were told repeatedly how ‘Catholics’ were being taken within, and reciprocating, the embrace of unionist outreach. Looking past the rhetoric, …

Read more…

Aaron & Brian’s Sunday View: the Census

  The Irish Times led with, ‘There are just 54,000 more people from a Protestant background than from a Catholic one in Northern Ireland’. The headline figure, that most papers and the media noticed, was that the gap between Protestants and Catholics had narrowed to 3 per cent in the recent statistics released from the 2011 census. Bringing together the information on Religion and Religion Brought up in, 45 per cent of the population were either Catholic or brought up …

Read more…

Dominic – computer says ‘kneel’

The SDLP’s main Irish language activist Doiminic O Brolcháin, Dominic Bradley on the SDLP and his own website, has clarified not a lot when it comes to filling in a census form in Irish: Initially he complained there was no Irish version of the form: In absence of an Irish version of the census form, I have asked Census 2011 if it’s legal to fill the English form in Irish. To date, I have had no response. But now Bradley …

Read more…