The figure in the same geographical area was over 10% in 1891, indicating a fall of 70% in the relative Protestant population over the past century. The Protestant depopulation in the Republic of Ireland during 1891-1991 was dramatic. Establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 may have further accelerated this phenomenon as many Protestants were wary of living in a majority Catholic country and therefore chose to emigrate to the United Kingdom. In 1861 only the west coast and Kilkenny were less than 6% Protestant. Dublin and two of the 'border counties' were over 20% Protestant. In 1991, however, all but four counties were less than 6% Protestant; the rest were less than 1%. There were no counties in the Republic of Ireland which had experienced a rise in the relative Protestant population over the period 1861 to 1991. Often, the counties which managed to retain the highest proportion of Protestants were the ones which started off with a large proportion. In Northern Ireland, only counties Derry, Tyrone and Armagh have experienced a significant loss of the relative Protestant population; in these cases, the change was not as dramatic as in the Republic. The previous pattern of decline started to change during the 1990s. By the time of the 2006 census of the Republic of Ireland, a little over 5% of the state was Protestant. The 2011 census of the Republic of Ireland found that the Protestant population in every county had grown. In 2012, the "Irish Independent" reported that "Irish Anglicanism is undergoing a quite remarkable period of growth" due to immigration and Irish Catholics converting. Prior to the Plantation of Ulster in the opening decades of the 17th century, the Irish Parliament consisted of Catholic Old English and Gaelic Irish MPs. Whilst these MPs had few ideological objections to making Henry VIII head of the Irish church as well as to the establishment of Anglicanism in Ireland under Elizabeth I in 1660, resistance to government policies started to grow. To help tip the balance of power in Parliament in favour of Protestants, Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, established sixteen new corporate towns in Ulster in the 1610s. These towns were little more than villages or planned towns. This resulted in Ulster alone returning 38 MPs to the Irish Parliament with the three other provinces altogether contributing 36, giving the government a majority of 32. This majority was reduced upon appeal by the Old English to six. However, under Lord Deputy Wentworth in 1640, a further sixteen Old English seats were removed. During 1640 and 1641, the interests of the Old English and New English combined to seek Wentworth's removal.