Do you think that divided loyalty is the most important contributing factor leading to the conflict in Northern Ireland? Explain your answer. [15 marks]

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Dexter Lim

Do you think that divided loyalty is the most important contributing factor leading to the conflict in Northern Ireland? Explain your answer. [15 marks]

The most important contributing factor is the factor that had the most weight on the result. I think that there are three main factors leading to the conflict in northern ireland. They are divided loyalties, the discrimination in education system in northern ireland and the competition for jobs.

Firstly, on divided loyalties, I think that this brought about a great influence on the resulting conflict in northern ireland. The protestants and catholics give their allegiance to different countries. The protestants regard themselves as British and want the country to be continued as a part of the united kingdom. Many were afraid of the union with the Republic of Ireland,a catholic country because a Catholic government would not be tolerant of Protestant beliefs. Meanwhile, the Catholics see themselves as Irish people and want to be united with the Republic of Ireland. They resent the past history of the English conquest and remember the persecution suffered by the catholics during England's conquest of Ireland. Many Catholics were massacred or treated harshly. They remember the long struggle for Home Rule.They distrust the Protestants as they still celebrate activities that Catholics find a disgrace. This can be seen in the fact that the Protestants still celebrate the Battle of Boyne as a mark of Protestant dominance and they usually march through Catholic residential areas. As a result, this divided sense of loyaity makes them indifferent to each other and intolerant of each other's opinions and beliefs. Evidence from above shows that divided loyalties caused both to be distrustful of each other. Therefore, this factor led to a big conflict from the early ages till now, making utilise quite an important factor to talk about.

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Secondly, on the factor on the discrimination in the education system, this also led to the conflict as the young were taught to hate each other. The Protestants go to public schools that are government funded that cater for protestants only while the catholics go to private school that are partly winded by the government that cater for Catholics only. Private individuals have set up mixed schools that cater for both protestants and catholics but were  not popular. The difference between the Protestants and the catholics are perpetuated because the protestant children british history and british sports such as ...

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