SDLP leader Colum Eastwood is slammed for his ‘delight’ at census findings showing Catholics are now largest group in Northern Ireland

Professor John Wilson ‘Jack’ Foster made the comments after the results of the 2021 national survey revealed what many have long expected: that Catholics now outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland for the first time in the country’s century-old existence.

Prof Foster (a Belfast-born literary and historical scholar, who taught at the University of British Columbia in Canada) had sharp words for SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, who had declared that the “figures demonstrating a greater proportion of Catholics living in Northern Ireland for the first time [amount] to a seminal moment in the island’s recent history”.

The SDLP chief had gone on to add: “As we’ve built a more inclusive and diverse society, we’ve together shattered the bonds of an oppressive state which ingrained discrimination against a Catholic minority...

“I hope that all those who lived through decades of discrimination and who experienced the sharp end of that oppressive state are able to breathe a sigh of relief today.”

Mr Foster voiced dismay at Mr Eastwood’s words, saying they “seemed to convey his delight at the findings”.

Prof Foster said it is “depressing” to see the party of constitutional nationalism indulging in “the anachronistic language of resistance against an alleged historical reality, 50 years old”, and asked: “Would Seamus Mallon have spoken like this?”

“It’s always been distasteful to see the future of Northern Ireland, indeed Ireland, reduced to a sectarian headcount,” he said.

“I believe that Mr Eastwood responded to the census in ways that could signal to the Catholic population: ‘Thankfully our time has come’.It bodes ill.”

The professor also contrasted the “cold” treatment shown to southern Protestants, whose numbers he said have declined over the decades, with the fact Catholic numbers in Northern Ireland have steadily expanded.

“If Northern Ireland in the past half-century since Stormont fell has been a cold house for Catholics, it has had a funny way of showing it,” said the professor.

Sinn Fein had released statements too, hailing the census figures and calling for preparations to begin towards a unity poll (butwithout explicitly mentioning Catholics and Protestants).

Professor Foster’s remarks can be found, in full, here.