Protestant/Catholic insight please

[chinakay]

Hiya gang!

I'm bashing my head against a stubborn family of Dargans at the moment. They're a mysterious bunch 

Seems one Charles Dargan (variations Dargen Dargin Dargon etc) had three children that I can find: Chester b 1822, Francis b 1827, and Eleanor b 1828. All in Antrim county. The family migrated to Belfast where the children married a McAffee and two Campbells (siblings).

So these are Scottish names and the families are known to be Protestant. But Dargan is a pretty Irish name and there are only 2 Protestant Dargans in the 1901 and 1911 censuses. The rest are all Roman Catholic. Somewhere back in time, my Dargan family seems to have converted to protestantism.

I'm asking for some practical insight into why the family might have done this. Apart from theological reasons, like someone was reading his Bible and came to the conclusion there was no need for priests etc...this kind of thing would be purely personal, subjective and impossible to prove. I'm looking for some kind of pragmatic reason.

I know it's a touchy subject in Ireland, but I'm not from there and have no idea how to approach the matter. Thanks if anyone can help 

Cheers,
China

[Sinann]

It's Valentine's Day so how about 'Because they were in love'.

Marriage was a common reason for conversion.
There was an interesting case on TV once where a woman had pretended not only to COI all her life but also from Northern Ireland she had in fact been born RC in Cork, but research also discovered her entire family in an earlier generation had converted from COI to RC.

[philipsearching]

It could have been easier to find a good job as a protestant.

[chinakay]

Interesting. Valentine's Day, of course...Happy Valentine's Day 

Wouldn't conversion be a bit dangerous? In my travels I came across an O'Connor who had been murdered by his own family for converting to protestantism.

[philipsearching]

Wouldn't conversion be a bit dangerous? In my travels I came across an O'Connor who had been murdered by his own family for converting to protestantism.

Maybe that's why they migrated to Belfast?

Philip

[chinakay]

Could be, I suppose.

Charles was a writing clerk. Wouldn't a firm offer that sort of job to a Catholic?

[Sinann]

Depends on the firm and the period.
The period in time plays a large part in this stuff, it varied through time, we should never assumed relations were always tense or that everyone felt the same way even if social convention at the time forced them to behave one way or another.

[chinakay]

Seems from what I've read that Belfast was pretty unsettled in the early 1800s. Big riot in 1829 when somebody tried to ban the Orange Parade, so they must have been having those parades for quite a while.

But I do take your point 

[KGarrad]

Seems one Charles Dargan (variations Dargen Dargin Dargon etc) had three children that I can find: Chester b 1822, Francis b 1827, and Eleanor b 1828. All in Antrim county. The family migrated to Belfast where the children married a McAffee and two Campbells (siblings).

Belfast is partly in County Down and partly in County Antrim
So, not much of a migration?

My in-laws are from Newtonabbey, County Antrim, which is in North Belfast.