Even in education in Northern Ireland the two religious groups where segregated (separated). They would have Catholic Schools which only Catholics could go to, and Protestant Schools where only Protestants could go. The state education which was funded by the Northern Ireland Government (Stormont) mainly went to the Protestant schools so that they could afford all of the equipment that the subjects needed. This meant that they could study science a lot better than a Catholic School could, as they could afford all of the equipment and chemicals that they needed. Whereas Catholic schools had to find fifty percent of ALL of their costs, so they tended to study cheaper subjects such as the arts i.e. Drama, Music, Art. With the Catholic schools not being able to afford the resources for science, they didn’t always get a good science qualification, and most of the best paid jobs required a science qualification.
Catholics were discriminated in employment as a result of their education and not getting good grades in expensive subjects such as Science. This is because most of the best paid jobs needed a Science Qualification. This meant that they were discriminated in quite a lot of jobs, which included a lot of power. For example 35 – 40% of the whole of Northern Ireland was a Roman Catholic people, but only 14.5% of the officers in the Northern Ireland Police Force were Roman Catholics. This is because of their education background not being good enough. Protestants also held most of the Civil Service and Local and National Government jobs. 97.5% of ALL council employees where Protestant. N.I.C.R.A (Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association) objected to the better treatment of Protestants in Jobs. Another example of this is that the Northern Ireland Government hired contractors to build 111 factories in Northern Ireland, but only 16 of these were built in Catholic areas. This meant it was very hard for Catholics to get a good job, so they couldn’t afford to buy or rent a house.
This led to Catholics being discriminated in housing as they couldn’t afford to buy or rent a house because there weren’t enough jobs for them all. So when they went to the local councils and asked for a council house, they were put on the list due to their religion, and not on the basis of need. So Protestants would always get the better houses and could live in one house for one family, but the Catholics who were always near the bottom of the list, got run down houses and many had to live with at least another family in the house. This also meant that the houses were usually in an untidy state and disease and sickness spread quickly. Doors were falling off of their hinges and many of them had to bathe in a tin bath in the back garden and wash in a tin bucket. Both of these where also used to wash their pots, pans, and clothes in these as well. But the housing situations also led onto another part of discrimination against Catholics. For every house that a person/family owned, they would receive one vote. So when there were three or four Catholic families living in one house/flat, they would receive one vote between them all.
In voting, local councils franchise (voting) reflected property and not population. They also excluded non rate/tax payers, and awarded people who owned more property with multiple votes. In Londonderry in 1966 there were 14,429 Catholic (Nationalists), and only 8.781 Protestants (Unionists). Even though there were less Protestants living in Londonderry, the Protestants got twelve Protestant councillors elected, compared to only eight Catholic Councillors. This was because of Gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is where councils rigged the area boundaries to ensure that Protestant councillors were elected/re-elected, so that the Protestant Government could stay in power, and therefore remain part of the United Kingdom (UK).
So overall Catholics in Northern Ireland were disadvantaged and discriminated against in many different parts of everyday life. It is because of this that N.I.C.R.A (Northern Ireland Civil Right’s Association) was set up, and they started to march to try an improve their lives, and go on marches to try and fight for what they believed where there rights, and to stand up against the discrimination from the local authorities and the Government. They wanted to get rid of this discrimination. Throughout history Catholics had been feared by the Protestants. This is because Protestants had always thought that the Catholics were rebellious, insulting and were following the Bible too strictly.
Catholics were badly discriminated against and at a disadvantage, because of the hatred between the two groups. This made the Protestants feel like the Catholics deserved everything that they got, because of the past.