Re: Riley-Irish or Scotch Irish
-
In reply to:
Riley-Irish or Scotch Irish
stephen pate 4/10/99
Protestant or Catholic, either way it's still Irish.Co. Cavan, in Ulster, is the home territory, and from 1630 (app.) on, there was tremendous pressure on all Catholics to convert to one of the mainstream Protestant churches, eg., Church of Ireland, Anglican, in order to retain many and various civil rights, such as the right to bear arms, to own a horse valued at more than 5 pounds, to vote, to retain title to family property, and so on.Lots of Catholic O'Reillys, Reillys, Rileys, and lots of Protestants.The great majority, however, remained Catholic.