Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Catholic and Irish (or of Irish descent).
The term is of note due to Irish immigration to many countries of the English speaking world, particularly as a result of the Great Irish Famine in the late 1840s, following which the population declined by over half in the following century (from approx. over 8 million to just over 4 million) due to the pattern of immigration begun then. The term has currency in the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Some of these nations had, or have, a majority of Protestants; thus, both aspects – being Catholic, and being Irish – at times separated them from the mainstream culture. In the United States, hostility to both these aspects was expressed through the Know-Nothing movement and Nativism in general.
The term can also relate to a period when Catholicism in Ireland was isolated from and culturally distinct from the Catholic Church in the rest of Europe. Though mostly reconciled with the Synod of Cashel in 1172, some elements unique within the practice of Catholicism and Catholic culture remained in Ireland.
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