Cybach
04-05-2008, 12:25
Segregation in Northern Ireland is a long-running issue in the political and social history of the province. It often been regarded as both a cause and effect of The Troubles between the Roman Catholic and Protestant populations of Northern Ireland.
A combination of political, religious and social differences plus the threat of intercommunal tensions and violence has led to widespread self-segregation of the two communities. Catholics and Protestants lead largely separate lives in a situation that some have dubbed "self-imposed apartheid". The academic John Whyte argued that "the two factors which do most to divide Protestants as a whole from Catholics as a whole are endogamy and separate education"
Education in Northern Ireland is heavily segregated. Most state schools in Northern Ireland are predominantly Protestant, while the majority of Catholic children attend schools maintained by the Catholic Church. In all, 90 per cent of children in Northern Ireland still go to separate faith schools.[3] The consequence is, as one commentator has put it, that "the overwhelming majority of Ulster's children can go from four to 18 without having a serious conversation with a member of a rival creed." The prevalence of segregated education has been cited as a major factor in maintaining endogamy (marriage within one's own group).
Public housing is overwhelmingly segregated between the two communities. Intercommunal tensions have forced substantial numbers of people to move from mixed areas into areas inhabited exclusively by one denomination, thus increasing the degree of polarisation and segregation. The extent of self-segregation grew very rapidly with the outbreak of the Troubles. In 1969, 69 per cent of Protestants and 56 per cent of Catholics lived in streets where they were in their own majority; as the result of large-scale flight from mixed areas between 1969 and 1971 following outbreaks of violence, the respective proportions had by 1972 increased to 99 per cent of Protestants and 75 per cent of Catholics.
It was estimated in 2004 that 92.5% of public housing in Northern Ireland was divided along religious lines, with the figure rising to 98% in Belfast.] Self-segregation is a continuing process, despite the Northern Ireland peace process. It was estimated in 2005 that more than 1,400 people a year were being forced to move as a consequence of intimidation.
In response to intercommunal violence, the British Army constructed a number of high walls euphemistically called "peace lines" to separate rival neighbourhoods. These have multiplied over the years and now number forty separate barriers, mostly located in Belfast. Despite the moves towards peace between Northern Ireland's political parties and most of its paramilitary groups, the construction of "peace lines" has actually increased during the ongoing peace process; the number of "peace lines" doubled in the ten years between 1995 and 2005.
The effective segregation of the two communities significantly affects the usage of local services in "interface areas" where sectarian neighbourhoods adjoin.[u] Surveys in 2005 of 9,000 residents of interface areas found that 75% refused to use the closest facilities because of location, while 82% routinely travelled to "safer" areas to access facilities even if the journey time was longer. 60% refused to shop in areas dominated by the other community, with many fearing ostracism by their own community if they violated an unofficial de facto boycott of their sectarian opposite numbers.
In contrast with both the Republic of Ireland and most parts of Great Britain, where intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics is common, intermarriage in Northern Ireland is rare.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,1191027,00.html
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199697/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds06/text/60718-1006.htm
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7428(199710)87%3A4%3C520%3AERSIBN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G
How will this play out for the State of North Ireland in the future? Having two people living on the same land who refuse almost any contact with the other party? Living side by side, yet purposely making sure they shop at their own, send their children to their own schools, attend their own churches, erect large walls where the boundary of one neighborhood ends, etc..? That there is an almost forced segregation practiced willingly by both sides, keeping their children from ever meeting the others before 18 or later. Discouraging any fraternization with members of the other side?
Is this a sort of foreshadowing as to how life in a future Israeli/Palestinian State may look like? Also two people who hate eachother forced to share one land?
What are your views that almost a decade after the peace accords, still yearly many people (from both sides) move to communal strongholds and away from mixed neighborhoods citing intimidation? That every year there are still riots.
What else do you think could be done to help bring along an amalgamation of the two societies for the overall stability of the region? How does one deal with the issue of the formerly Catholic minority, looking through immigration, higher childbirths and more Protestant emigration becoming the majority in the region? Therefore awakening the fear of the remaining Protestants now in the minority that North Ireland now with a Catholic majority could theoretically pass a vote to re-connect with mainland Ireland instead of being in Union with the United Kingdom [North Irish newspapers for public peace concerns ban the public releasing of demographic data]?
A combination of political, religious and social differences plus the threat of intercommunal tensions and violence has led to widespread self-segregation of the two communities. Catholics and Protestants lead largely separate lives in a situation that some have dubbed "self-imposed apartheid". The academic John Whyte argued that "the two factors which do most to divide Protestants as a whole from Catholics as a whole are endogamy and separate education"
Education in Northern Ireland is heavily segregated. Most state schools in Northern Ireland are predominantly Protestant, while the majority of Catholic children attend schools maintained by the Catholic Church. In all, 90 per cent of children in Northern Ireland still go to separate faith schools.[3] The consequence is, as one commentator has put it, that "the overwhelming majority of Ulster's children can go from four to 18 without having a serious conversation with a member of a rival creed." The prevalence of segregated education has been cited as a major factor in maintaining endogamy (marriage within one's own group).
Public housing is overwhelmingly segregated between the two communities. Intercommunal tensions have forced substantial numbers of people to move from mixed areas into areas inhabited exclusively by one denomination, thus increasing the degree of polarisation and segregation. The extent of self-segregation grew very rapidly with the outbreak of the Troubles. In 1969, 69 per cent of Protestants and 56 per cent of Catholics lived in streets where they were in their own majority; as the result of large-scale flight from mixed areas between 1969 and 1971 following outbreaks of violence, the respective proportions had by 1972 increased to 99 per cent of Protestants and 75 per cent of Catholics.
It was estimated in 2004 that 92.5% of public housing in Northern Ireland was divided along religious lines, with the figure rising to 98% in Belfast.] Self-segregation is a continuing process, despite the Northern Ireland peace process. It was estimated in 2005 that more than 1,400 people a year were being forced to move as a consequence of intimidation.
In response to intercommunal violence, the British Army constructed a number of high walls euphemistically called "peace lines" to separate rival neighbourhoods. These have multiplied over the years and now number forty separate barriers, mostly located in Belfast. Despite the moves towards peace between Northern Ireland's political parties and most of its paramilitary groups, the construction of "peace lines" has actually increased during the ongoing peace process; the number of "peace lines" doubled in the ten years between 1995 and 2005.
The effective segregation of the two communities significantly affects the usage of local services in "interface areas" where sectarian neighbourhoods adjoin.[u] Surveys in 2005 of 9,000 residents of interface areas found that 75% refused to use the closest facilities because of location, while 82% routinely travelled to "safer" areas to access facilities even if the journey time was longer. 60% refused to shop in areas dominated by the other community, with many fearing ostracism by their own community if they violated an unofficial de facto boycott of their sectarian opposite numbers.
In contrast with both the Republic of Ireland and most parts of Great Britain, where intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics is common, intermarriage in Northern Ireland is rare.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,1191027,00.html
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199697/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds06/text/60718-1006.htm
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7428(199710)87%3A4%3C520%3AERSIBN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G
How will this play out for the State of North Ireland in the future? Having two people living on the same land who refuse almost any contact with the other party? Living side by side, yet purposely making sure they shop at their own, send their children to their own schools, attend their own churches, erect large walls where the boundary of one neighborhood ends, etc..? That there is an almost forced segregation practiced willingly by both sides, keeping their children from ever meeting the others before 18 or later. Discouraging any fraternization with members of the other side?
Is this a sort of foreshadowing as to how life in a future Israeli/Palestinian State may look like? Also two people who hate eachother forced to share one land?
What are your views that almost a decade after the peace accords, still yearly many people (from both sides) move to communal strongholds and away from mixed neighborhoods citing intimidation? That every year there are still riots.
What else do you think could be done to help bring along an amalgamation of the two societies for the overall stability of the region? How does one deal with the issue of the formerly Catholic minority, looking through immigration, higher childbirths and more Protestant emigration becoming the majority in the region? Therefore awakening the fear of the remaining Protestants now in the minority that North Ireland now with a Catholic majority could theoretically pass a vote to re-connect with mainland Ireland instead of being in Union with the United Kingdom [North Irish newspapers for public peace concerns ban the public releasing of demographic data]?