Describe the disadvantages faced by the Catholics in Northern Ireland in the mid – 1960s.
In the mid – 1960s there was glaring inequality and discrimination in Northern Ireland for Catholics despite the big concern to improve it by O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Prime Minister. This discrimination was not just in one aspect of their life but it ranged from a lot of different areas that made their lives almost impossible.
Employment was a big area in which discrimination was present in the mid – 1960s. O’ Neill had tried to improve the discrimination by bringing in new industries and investment in Northern Ireland but they built in Protestant areas meaning the work opportunities went to them. According to textbook figures in the mid – 1960s 111 new factories were built in which only 16 factories were built in counties with a mostly Catholic population. Industries had not changed their employment policies. According to a Sunday Times newspaper article (Source1) written in 1961 it tells us that in a Belfast shipyard that had 10,000 workers that was ‘the biggest single source of employment in them city –just 400’ were Catholics. During this time the Civil service mostly employed Protestants. The newspaper article also states ‘the population of Fermanagh was more than half Catholic.’ The article tells us despite the more Catholic population the City Council employed 370 people in which, ‘322 of the posts, including the top ones were filled by Protestants.’ This source also suggests that Catholics were not given high-ranking jobs. In a Northern Ireland textbook it tells us that in the mid – 1960s it says: ‘In Londonderry, an area with a Catholic majority, the highest ranking Catholic in the education department was the official in charge of school meals.’
