Protestant Dissent in Oreland - Late 1600's
There were three general reasons for Protestant dissent, or non-conformity in Ireland - politics, ethnicity and religious beliefs. Each was a factor in the Protestant disunity in Ireland. This however oversimplifies the problem. Dissent and non-conformity are lumped together because they were different from the norm (the Anglicans), much like the Catholics. But there are distinctions between the two. Dissent was defined as a view that an established, uniformed church was wrong (e.g. Quakers); non-conformists were those who did not believe the Church of Ireland was the right institution for them, though they did believe in an established church (e.g. Presbyterians). In some areas of Ireland, your religious affiliation came to identify who you were or who you wanted to be rather than what it was you believed in.