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By the end of the 16th century and, in particular, in Ulster, the Irish Catholicism had developed into a sort of nationalistic faith in fatherland-type religion so that was important in itself. But for strategic and political reasons England generally wanted to Protestantise Ireland and, with the great revolt of the Nine Years’ War being suppressed, of course they wanted to try and change the religion of the inhabitants because of the threat that they inhabitants and their gentry ultimately posed. The problem though is that undertaking that is such a large process which they are not ever capable or indeed willing to do (for instance they never have enough clergy to preach in Irish to the local inhabitants), and their pursuit of coercive measures, of course, puts the back up of local inhabitants generally / use of martial law - that means that people recoil into their ancestral religion and take solace in it. So as a result, religion becomes a defence mechanism and a question of identity. The interesting thing is that the Presbyterians who came to Ulster, particularly in eastern-Ulster would seem to have had some success in proselytising the local Irish, because the Presbyterians coming from Scotland were willing to preach in Irish. And there are a number of families in Antrim and Down who quite clEarly changed their religion in the Early 17th century and became Presbyterians, but they did not become Church of Ireland.
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