Northern Ireland - source related questions and answers

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Korhan Uysal

11BW

Northern Ireland Coursework

1. What can you learn from source A about the disadvantages faced by Catholics in Northern Ireland in the early 1960’s?

Source A is from an article in the ‘Sunday Times’ newspaper written in 1961. The article is regarding the numbers the discrimination faced by Catholics when trying to get work. The source explains how “[out of] 10,000 workers in a Belfast shipyard – the biggest single source of employment in the city – just 400 are Catholics.” This means that only a mere 4% of workers are Catholic. We are then told about how “Fermanagh County Council itself employed 370 people; 322 of the posts, including the top ones, were filled by protestants.” Even though, according to the source, “The population of Fermanagh was more than half Catholic.” Source A tells us that Catholics were systematically excluded from desirable jobs in both towns and the countryside.

2. How useful are sources B + C in helping to asses the extent of discrimination against Catholics?

Source B and C are both very useful but have their strengths and weaknesses. Source B is a quote from Billy Sinclair a former player-manager of Linfield. Sinclair explains how “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 Saint something, then all of a sudden the boy isn’t good enough. He kicks with the wrong foot.” Now although this shows clear discrimination against Catholics in sports: Protestant Linfield scouts would find a problem with any player no matter how good they were on the basis that they were catholic. The context it was in leads to problems, the quote is from a talking in 1984. Unfortunately we do not know what preceded this quote or what followed it so we have no idea why he talked about this and what the point he was actually trying to make was. Therefore this source is reliable but weak as he could have been quoted in such a way that makes him seem anti-catholic. Source on the other hand is very reliable and strong proof that Catholics were discriminated against in employment. It is from a published document by the Ulster Protestant Action, an organization formed by the reverend Ian Paisley and other Unionists. This source is strong, reliable evidence showing that employers are free to discriminate against Catholic employees in times of depression. This was because most employees were Protestant anyway, but lay offs were needed the Catholic should be the first to go. These two sources together are quite useful to assess the amount of discrimination to a certain extent, and that extent is in employment. Unfortunately Source B is not very strong as we don’t know the original context it was in.

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3. Use sources D, E, and F, and your own knowledge, to explain why this city became a centre of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland?

Londonderry was the city where all the civil rights marches and riots took place. There were many reasons for these which included sectarian division, anti-Catholic discrimination in housing, employment and gerrymandering ward boundaries. Source D is a photograph of the house of a catholic family in Londonderry taken in the 1960’s. The photo shows a man and a child in what seems to be a garden of a ...

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