I thought it might interest members of the forum to learn that the Republic of Ireland now contains more Orthodox Christians than Methodists! If anyone is interested in the Irish Orthodox scene then I can recommend a visit to http://www.orthodoxireland.com/ which includes information about all the Orthodox Churches throughout Ireland including the ROCOR mission in Belfast.
Brigid
Orthodox Population Growing in Ireland
2002 Census figures show that the number of Orthodox in the Republic of Ireland has grown substantially.
There are now more Orthodox Christians than Methodists in the Republic of Ireland, 2002 Census figures released by the Central Statistics Office show.
There are a total of 10,437 Orthodox (0.27% of the population), making the Orthodox Church the fourth largest Christian body in the Republic, after 3,462,606 Roman Catholics (88%), 115,611 members of the Church of Ireland (2.95%), and 20,582 Presbyterians (0.53%). After Orthodox Christians, Methodists were next with 10,003 members (0.26%). The total of all other Christians was 21,403 (0.55%). Surprisingly perhaps, 19,147 Muslims (0.49%) were also recorded. Other religions totalled 40,026 (1.02%), whilst 138,264 people (3.53%) claimed no religious affiliation. 79,094 (2.02%) preferred not to state their religion.