Honest question

Greetings

Englishman here. Never been to Ireland. This is invariably going to come across as a Hibernophobic question, so let me clarify at the outset: I have no ill-will or contempt towards the Irish, but I'm genuinely curious- just how aware is the average Irishman of the fact that when you guys say “Catholic and Protestant”, you tend to mean something completely different to the rest of the world?

My own experience ranges from a self-deprecating Irish friend of mine who finds it just as baffling as we do, to another friend who recalled members of his family asking Chinese visitors if they were Catholic or Protestant.

To reiterate- Just trying to understand. Thank you for bearing with me.

EDIT: So I was unaware this only applied to NI not ROI... apparently if I go repost on r/northernireland there will be a catastrophic collective meltdown