Describe the disadvantages faced by the Catholics in Northern Ireland in the mid-1960s.

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Northern Ireland Coursework

1. Describe the disadvantages faced by the Catholics in Northern Ireland in the mid-1960s.

Ireland was partitioned in 1922. The North became Northern Ireland and the south Republic of Ireland. It was not really an event, for decades Britain had resisted Home rule but by 1919 the attitudes were altering. A majority of Northern Ireland were Protestants, the Catholics only made up 33% of the population, and the 66% left were Protestants. The Protestants wanted to remain a part of Britain but the Catholics wanted to become independent and separate form Ireland. This abhorrence between Catholics and Protestants resulted in the Catholics having a number of disadvantages, since they were the minority of the population and because of their religion.

 

The political disadvantages faced by Catholics were caused mainly by the structure of the Stormont Parliament. The Stormont Parliament was meant to look after not only the interests of the Protestants but of the Catholics as well. But as the Protestants were a majority of the population, the Catholics were neglected. The majority of Protestants was controlling the government and the parliament. Before 1969 every member of the Northern Ireland Cabinet were Protestant and almost all of them were members of the Orange Order. Catholics didn’t have a say in the government or the parliament. The laws that were passed therefore favoured the Protestants. Political disadvantages were also apparent in local government politics. Unionists moved local government boundaries so that they could win control of local councils as well. This was called Gerrymandering. More Protestant than Catholics became boundary commissioners, the Catholics refused. They had to raw up the boundaries of the voting districts. They drew boundaries, which favoured the Protestants. More Protestant councillors were elected. In addition there was a property vote, which also favoured Protestants. People who had a certain value of property would get a second vote; this favoured the Protestants because they were the ones most likely to have a property of high value. Even in areas where the Catholics were a majority, there was always Protestants voted. This was because Protestants had better jobs and they could afford houses, this gave them higher property value.

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There were harsh disadvantages for the Catholics in employment as well. This can be observed in Source A. In source A it shows that in the Belfast Shipyard –the biggest single source of employment in the city, out of 10,000 workers just 400 were Catholics – the rest Protestants. Many industries or businesses employed only Catholics or only Protestants. This was not a deliberate policy; it usually relied on the location of the business. For example, if the location of a business was situated in a Protestant area, the workers there would be Protestants.  The political control what Protestants ...

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