We must also bear in mind that the Protestants are mainly concentrated
in the two provinces of Ulster and Leinster. Ulster contains nearly all
the Irish Presbyterians--421,000 out of 439,000--men who are rather
Scotch by descent than actually native Irish. Ulster also contains
366,000 Episcopalians, making, with 48,000 Methodists, 835,000
Protestants in Ulster, out of 1,075,000 in the whole of Ireland. The
rest of the Episcopalians are in Leinster--round Dublin--where 140,000
are domiciled. Munster contains less than 60,000 Protestants in all,
and Connaught contains little over 20,000.[10] It is practically a
Catholic province.
The great fact about this religious situation in Ireland, therefore, is
that you have a Catholic country with a strong Protestant minority.
We are asked to believe that this presents an insuperable obstacle to
the gift of self-government. But Ireland does not stand alone in this
respect. There are many other countries in the world where the same
difficulty has been faced and overcome. Take the German Empire. It has
included since 1870 the great state of Bavaria, where the great
struggle of the Reformation ended with honours divided.
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