Republic in religious terms becoming 'unrecognisable'

In the Republic there were now "possibly more people of Polish extraction than there are Protestants. In terms of a widely-spoken second language, Polish may have supplanted Irish," Rev Earl Storey told the General Synod in Armagh yesterday.

"In terms of religion, it [the Republic] will soon be unrecognisable. People are finding their places of community and spirituality in new places other than church."

Philip McKinley said it had been forecast that by 2020 there would be one million immigrants in the Republic, or one in five of the population.

"That means there will be more immigrants on the island than Ulster unionists."

The dean of Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral, Canon Des Harman, said that on Monday he had walked from the cathedral to Parnell Street, via Henry Street and Moore Street, and had heard just one conversation in English. Had he been blindfolded he could have been somewhere else entirely.

Dean Rooke, chair of the church's "Hard Gospel Committee" which has been charged with finding ways of tackling sectarianism within the church, rejected the notion that sectarianism was a Northern issue.

He recounted the comment made to him by a Dublin relative following the Love Ulster riots last February that "if your lot had only stayed up there in the North where they belong, there would have been no problem".

He acknowledged that his relative's view may not be typical of the new pluralist Ireland but that today's "your lot" in the Republic was quickly becoming its immigrants.