No sé si hay algún equivalente despectivo en español pero te ayudo al menos con el significado; así llamaban a los católicos en EE.UU. quienes los despreciaban.

Don't despair!

I'm checking into it and will get back to you ASAP.

Slán...
tb

Mira, creo que este término es el que más se acerca. No obstante, éste tiene un componente semántico de hipocresía en la práctica de la religión que el término en inglés no tiene.

Te paso algunos ejemplos:
En el siglo XIX el liberalismo laicista, en un diabólico consorcio con la masonería, impusieron sus propios dicterios: ``chupacirios'', ``tragahostias'', ``jesuita'', ``rata de sacristía'' y otros de excelente tenor constituyeron los de mayor éxito
http://gateway.abc.com.py/archivo/1998/12/13/Opi08.htm

"No juzguéis, y no seréis juzgados", palabras textuales del propio Jesús al que tragahostias como Ud. afirman imitar.
http://www.gaysevilla.net/6/opinion6.htm

When I was growing up, a mackerel snapper was a derogatory term for an Irish Catholic, and it's still listed in the Dictionary of American Slang.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/06/reviews/980906.06westl...

“Mackerel snapper,” my classmates teased Andy Evans, the lone Catholic in our school.
http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleID=3686

el propio Uslar Pietri, premiado por el rey de España, dice que aquél fue combatido por todos los progresistas, claro, si era un recalcitrante papista y comehostias!;
http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp/docs_sp/rect.htm

Saludos,

Patricia

This is another possibility, very much used in Argentina and other Latinamerican countries.

Hope it helps!

Saludos #:)

I promised I'd get back to you. Firstly, I have to admit that I truly admire the work my colleagues have done on this and at first, I thought "fronterizo" was most likely right (and the other answers were mainly based on his). Whereas I would never undermine anyone's work or efforts, I've discovered that George Bernard Shaw was in fact of the Protestant religion (born into a Protestant family and his early education was at a Protestant school).

See: http://www.iea.sep.gob.mx/html/efemerides/biogra/gbernard.ht...

This website belongs to the Mexican Ministry of Education. In brief, this would tend to refute the theory of "mackarel snapper" exclusively being a derogatory term for a Roman Catholic. I don't doubt that this may be historically true (there IS evidence to support it) but in Shaw's case, the term obviously has a different meaning.

This question truly intrigues me as I am native Irish, however, I still have not been able to find out its exact meaning or origin, particularly in your context. Nevertheless, I promise you I am still working arduously on the matter (I even have a promise of help from the Irish Ambassador to Mexico) and I won't give up (¡somos tercos!) until I find something more concrete.

Just hope you can bear with me. If you can't, I'll understand.

Slán (health and goodbye, in Gaelic)

tb

"Mackerel snapper" IS indeed a term used to refer in a derogatory manner to Roman Catholics. I have certainly heard it in the U.S. It refers to the old Catholic custom of eating fish on Fridays because of the former prohibition against eating meat.

As a translation, I think both "tragahostias" and "chupacirios" are good. Fronterizo's answer is exactly right, but the other two give you the derogatory connotations.

Hi Mónica!

Firstly, I apologize sincerely to you, as well as my esteemed colleagues, for the delay. I was so sure I could come up with something more concrete, but, I regret to say that hasn't happened. Despite strenuous efforts, I have not found anything to refute that "mackerel snapper" is a derogatory term for Roman Catholics. I never really doubted this except that I just couldn't see HOW it might apply to Bernard Shaw, since he was Protestant.

So, in all fairness to you and to my fellow-translators, I must concur and take my hat off to "fronterizo" for his excellent work...and the others who proposed local equivalents in Spanish for the term. As a final point, I should tell you all that in my "travels", I discovered yet another derogatory term used by the "Landover Baptists" (USA) to describe Roman Catholics: "Mary Lovers".

Well thanks to you all, especially you Mónica, for your patience.

Best Regards:

tb