page_title: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ireland
section_title: Church status today
hierarchical_section_title: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ireland / Church status today
caption_attribution_description: English: A meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the townland of Kellystown, in the civil parish of Clonsilla
context_page_description: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a presence in Ireland since at least 1840, when the Mormon missionary John Taylor first preached in Newry. He and other missionaries converted a number of Irish people, forming a branch in Hillsborough, County Down. Many of the converted Irish saints emigrated in order to escape poverty, as well as to live in majority Latter Day Saint communities. Missionary efforts continued in the 1850s and a small branch was established in Dublin, but many members emigrated to Utah or lost interest in the church, and in 1867 the Irish mission was placed in the care of the British mission. A new branch was formed in Belfast in 1884 and a Dublin branch was reestablished in 1900. All of this occurred despite anti-Mormon disturbances by local Irish people.
  Beginning in 1907 Irish church members were asked to remain in their home country to build up the church in that area. This plea by local ecclesiastical leaders initiated a new era of stability for the church in Ireland. In 1948 the first church-owned meeting house was constructed and in 1953 Northern Ireland welcomed President David O. McKay as the first prophet to visit that region.
context_section_description: As of December 2011, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the largest Latter Day Saint denomination) claims 2,915 members in the Republic of Ireland. This is contradicted by the 2006 and 2011 censuses which show, respectively, 1237 and 1284 people self-reporting as Latter-day Saints in the Republic.  LDS Church membership statistics are typically different from attendance and self-reporting statistics mainly because the LDS Church does not remove an individual's name from its membership rolls based on inactivity in the church.
  As of October 2016, there are 13 congregations in the Republic of Ireland. As of December 2011 there were 11 congregations in Northern Ireland. Well-known Irish Latter day Saints include Charles Albert Callis, who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Robert Sands, who was the fifth conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
caption: LDS Meetinghouse in Clonsilla, Ireland
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