LONG before the keenly anticipated religious breakdown census figures were released last week it was clear that great change is coming to the North of Ireland. Much as loyal Ulster has, Chicken Licken-like, been pretending that everthing’s fine, much as agitated senior unionists today argue that Catholics outnumbering Protestants does not automatically equate to a united Ireland, and much as we might agree with them, there can be no underestimating the visceral impact that the official ending of the Protestant state has had on people and their forebears whose lot in life – and that of their forebears – was to be the permanent underdog and scapegoat.
