Northern Ireland Coursework

Authors Avatar

Northern Ireland Coursework

Q1. Describe the disadvantages faced by Catholics in Northern Ireland in the mid 1960’s.


Up to the mid 1960’s Catholics faced countless problems. The Anglo – Irish treaty of 1921 partitioned Ireland into two countries, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland mainly Protestant made from six Ulster counties which are known as Londonderry, Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone. All six counties had their own parliament and their own government for domestic issues. The majority of the population in the Republic of Ireland was Irish Catholic. The Republic of Ireland was made of twenty two counties, which wanted an independent country. In 1921 a group of Sinn Fein, and IRA members signed a treaty with the British accepting the division of Ireland. This was when what’s known as “Northern Ireland” was created, which was dominated by Protestants. Following the treaty of 1921, the Northern Ireland government established in Stormont castle were granted the wide ranging powers of education, housing, local elections and policing. With this dominance, the Northern Ireland government had unlimited control over how the country was governed. The people of Northern Ireland, being mainly Protestant, were free to elevate themselves over their Catholic counter-parts and to shape the country as they wished, segregating Catholics. The Catholics who remained in the north felt as abandoned as the Protestants in the south. They had no secure national identity, no local group in Ulster, nor any political coherence, as they were defined as outsiders by the state’s core values of Protestantism and British demeanour. It is obvious that this unfair treatment would lead to conflict if things were not put right. As Catholics in Northern Ireland wanted a united and independent Ireland, resentment started to grow. The Unionists who held power in the north were determined to keep Ulster British and Protestant; an example of this would be from Sir James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, as he said “All I boast I that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant state.” Also his successor Brook, did not have a single Catholic employed when he came into power, he believed Catholics were “Out to destroy with all their might and power” This generated major problems for Catholics in Northern Ireland as a result Catholics were discriminated against.

The Catholics were discriminated mainly due to them being out numbered, as Roman Catholics formed 35 to 40 per cent of the population in Northern Ireland plus only 14.5 per cent of all officers in Northern Ireland’s police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary were Roman Catholics and the fact less of them owned businesses to provide each other with work. To make things worse for Catholics they were discriminated into further issues such as employment and politics as the Ulster Unionist Party subjugated the whole of Northern Ireland. A perfect example of this would be in the city of Londonderry as the Northern Ireland government gerrymandered by fixing constituency borders to ensure favourable elections results to them (meaning leading councillors, MPs and Prime Ministers were always Protestant and Unionists) as 40 per cent of local government seats went to Nationalist parties, yet 60 per cent of the population were Roman Catholics. Furthermore voting in local elections in Northern Ireland was mainly on the basis of property in which you owned, so if you were a single person with no property, this would mean you would not have the opportunity to vote. Whereas if you were a single person with several properties under your name, your vote would have counted for more than one, or even several amounts. This discriminated against Catholics as they were poorer than Protestants due to employment discrimination towards them. An example of employment discrimination would be the Belfast shipyards, of the 111 government contracts to build factories in the post-war period only 16 had been built in Catholic areas and in addition to this, jobs in shipbuilding were perceived as Protestant-only careers.

The bulk of the protestant politicians were said to have made decisions against Catholic interests in a planned fashion and at this time there was immense tension between the Protestants and the Catholics so much so that the prejudiced Protestants started segregated areas which really effected the Catholics, they found it almost impossible to find jobs in areas where Protestants were seen as much higher classed than the Catholics religion. This lead to a new form of discrimination against Catholic and this was the education system where the two religions had their own schools. This was a real blow to the Catholics. As they couldn’t benefit from this; the government’s interest remained with Protestant schools. As well as school segregation sport followed the same rule, as Billy Sinclair a former player – manager of Linfield said “If you’re a Linfield scout and you see a lad who’s good, the second or third question is, “What school did you go to son?” And if it’s a Saint something, then all of a sudden the boy isn’t good enough. He kicks with the wrong foot.”

During the 1960s there was evidence of economic recession, which began affecting everyone in the United Kingdom especially Northern Ireland, traditional Northern Irish industries like shipbuilding, linen production were beginning to be to see the affect and unemployment began to rise, subsequently slum clearance programmes were stopped. To make it more difficult for Catholics, they were forced to live in the slums whereas the Protestants were given opportunities to live in areas in which were far better off than the Catholics.

However there was some hope as a civil right movement was introduced with its aim to fight for equal rights all over Northern Ireland. They wanted to terminate sectarian and make sure Catholics and Republicans had the same opportunities for jobs, housing, law and education. This peaceful organization was inspired by Martin Luther King’s civil rights campaigns which had been growing across the USA since the mid-1950s. The civil rights movement was also supported by Protestants who were also being discriminated towards however many of them opposed this as they believed this would benefit the Catholics far more than them.

Join now!

Q2. How did Protestant politicians explain the social, economic and political differences between Catholic and Protestant?

In the whole of Ireland Protestant’s were a minority and in Northern Ireland they were a majority so they felt the need to justify themselves politically. The Protestant politicians denied all allegations that they discriminated against Catholics. They said that each of the decisions made were individually and totally justifiable.

Both in Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State had segregated employment. This meant that mainly Protestants could get work in Northern Ireland and mainly Catholics in the Irish Free State could attain jobs. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay