Catholics also faced disadvantages in housing as they lived in very poor houses. Protestant gave a priority to protestant in allocating council houses. Also new council houses were built in protestant areas as a result Catholics lived in very poor housing. Source D is an illustration of how Catholics lived in diabolical house conditions. The houses were slum
They were also small, they had filthy living conditions, lack of space and the bath was outside and this left the residents very unhappy. Source D was not very reliable to say that all the Catholics live in poor condition as it only show one family. Although some Protestants lived in slum and
Some Catholics lived in good houses, the vast majority of poor house were Catholics. All new council houses tended to be built in Protestants areas so if Catholics were to live there they would face harsh discrimination from the Protestants. Protestant council tend to give the most and best jobs to protest. Protestant owned more businesses did the same. As a result more Catholics were unemployed and those who had jobs had worse paid once.
Question 1
They also faced disadvantages in Employment and socially. Catholics were in separate schools, this helped to ensure that they could be identify and discriminated against in term of jobs and other opportunities Police force were mainly protestant. There was resentment between Catholics and the police especially ‘B’ Specials. Overall, Catholics faced many disadvantages that were mainly due to protestant discrimination. Protestant were able to do this because they were a majority and Catholics were a minority. Political domination and the feeling in stormont that enemies allowed and encouraged this, source F Show how different disadvantage link up and help each other to happen.
Most employers in Northern Ireland were Protestant so they tended to employ mainly Protestants. Source A shows us that out of 10,000 workers in a Belfast Shipyard only 400 were Catholics and it also shows that were Catholics were the majority Catholics got most of the jobs, out of 75 school bus drivers in Fermanagh only 7 were Protestants, the population of Fermanagh was more than half Catholic. Source B tells us that if a Protestant scout spots a boy who is good, the second or third question is “what school do you go to” and if its saint something then all of a sudden the boy isn’t good enough, this is because only Catholics went to schools which were called saint something and Protestants were thought to be better than Catholics. Source C is a document published by Ulster Protestants Action telling Protestants employers to sack Catholic workers and keep Protestants in times of depression. This was Ian Paisleys View and he had these extreme views because he believed that the Catholic Church was an evil organisation trying to enslave Protestants.
Catholics faced numerous Legal Disadvantages like there were special powers acts 1922 and the RUC. The special powers act 1922 which was then made permanent in 1933 permitted indefinite internment, arrest on suspicion, search without warrant and replacement of trial by jury with special courts. Although these laws applied to both Catholics and Protestants they were used more harshly on Catholics because the police force were mostly Protestant. The RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) was made up almost entirely of Protestants and the majority of judges and magistrates in Northern Ireland were Protestant and used laws harshly on Catholics so Catholics did not get a fair trial. The RUC are also known as B’Specials were sometimes called in for help in cases such as riots they were well known for using violence against Catholics.
Catholics also faced many social disadvantages. Few Catholics went to grammar school or University although given the opportunity in 1944 when the Education Act law was passed and Catholics were usually not chosen to represent their local area in sports activities.
Question 1
Source B is a very good example of this, it is a Linfield scout telling us that if a boy is good at sports and is a Catholic he will suddenly not be good enough as Protestants were thought to be better than Catholics. Catholics and Protestants also went to different schools and were only taught about their own religion and faith and were brought up to think the other religious group was an enemy to them and this led to the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland.
The information gained clearly illustrates that Catholics faced many disadvantages in Northern Ireland and were treated unfairly by the protestant. A vast majority of Catholics faced these problems but there were a minority who good paid jobs, good housing, no problems with the RUC. The Catholics who faced the largest disadvantages lived in the run down working class areas if Northern Ireland for example Londonderry. A vast majority of Catholics faced these problems due to Ian Paisley and many other politicians views that Catholics churches are working to enslave protestant although other protestant have different views, some say Catholics were lazy and other even denied the such disadvantage existed.