Northern Ireland: Beyond the Time of Troubles

Abstract

Northern Ireland contains six of the 26 counties of the island of Ireland, and has a population of around 1.5 million. Just under 60 per cent of the community belong to Protestant denominations, and more than 40 per cent are Catholic, percentages that reflect ethnic identity more than religious observance; atheists, agnostics and members of other religions account for only 3.7 per cent of the population. Relatively higher Catholic fertility rates, although declining, are reflected in the different age structures of the two religious groups, and Catholics now form more than half of the under-16 population (Cormack, Gallagher and Osborne, 1993). Although some parts of Northern Ireland are religiously exclusive, many parts are not. Consequently, unlike some other apparently intractable conflicts, contact between members of the two communities is normal in many areas. ‘They mingle’, as J.C. Beckett observed, ‘with a consciousness of their differences between them’ (Beckett and Glasscock, 1967: 188). Members of both religious groups are represented to some degree in almost every town, village and locality, creating a mosaic of intermingled relationships with greatly varying levels of social, economic and residential segregation and integration. This is one of the defining characteristics of the Northern Irish conflict. As one historian put it: