Catholic Church in Scotland the eastern suburbs of Glasgow, especially around Coatbridge, populated mostly by the descendants of Irish immigrants. According to the 2011 census, Catholics comprise 16% of the overall population, making it the second largest church after the Church of Scotland (32%). In recent years the Catholic Church in Scotland has suffered from poor publicity connected to attacks made against secular and liberal values by senior clergy. Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell, came under fire after describing the "gay lobby" as "the opposition" who were responsible for mounting "a giant conspiracy" to shape public policy. Criticism has also been levelled at perceived
Geography of Scotland in the early modern era life of their displaced workers, enclosures led to unemployment and forced migrations to the burghs or abroad. There are almost no reliable sources with which to track the population of Scotland before the late seventeenth century. Estimates based on English records suggest that by the end of the Middle Ages the Black Death and subsequent recurring outbreaks of the plague may have caused the population of Scotland to fall as low as half a million people. Price inflation, which generally reflects growing demand for food, suggests that this probably expanded in the first half of the sixteenth century, levelling off