SOCIAL STUDIES

INQUIRY BASED
LEARNING
Case study of Northern Ireland

CONTENT PAGE
1. Brief History
2. Causes
-Divided Loyalties
-Unequal Allocation of Housing

4. Consequences

-Unequal Employment Opportunities

-Bloody Sunday

-Lack of Voting Rights

-Social Segregation

-Lack of Opportunities for Social Interaction

-Declining Economy

3. Feelings and reactions

-Political Reform

5. Reflection of work

Brief History
The Republic of Ireland is historically a Catholic country and a large majority of the
Irish are Catholics.
Many people in Northern Ireland are descendants of the original population of this
region and are also Catholics.
However, the majority of the Northern Irish have forefathers who emigrated from
England and Scotland and these two countries have been Protestant for almost 500
years.
Therefore, we end up with a rather confusing situation with a split population from
two different cultural and religious backgrounds.

Reasons for the

conflict in
Northern Ireland

Divided Loyalties
The difference in political beliefs between the Protestants and Catholics also contributed to the
conflict in Northern Ireland.
The Protestants saw themselves as British and were loyal to Britain, wanting NI to remain as
part of Britain.
However, the Catholics saw themselves as Irish and preferred to break away from the UK and
rejoin Northern Ireland.
Both communities could not see a common future for Northern Ireland and were divided on
how to move it forward politically.

Unequal employment opportunities

In Northern Ireland, it is more difficult for Catholics to get jobs, especially in the civil
/ government service.
Thus Catholics felt that they were not able to earn a living and take care of their
families.
As a result many catholic families were poor and had a poor quality of life, although
they were just as / more qualified than the Protestants, because they were
discriminated due to their religion.

Unequal housing allocation

As the city councils are largely made up of Protestants, more houses would be given
to the Protestants than the Catholics.
Despite Catholic families being larger, they were given smaller homes.
Even though the Catholics have larger families, they would have to wait many
years to be allocated a house,

Lack of voting rights

Catholics up till 1969 were not allowed to vote.
Only those who owned their own homes and businesses could vote. Those who
owned larger businesses could get more votes.
Thus this system benefited the Protestants and caused many poor Catholics to not
have the vote.
As Protestants tended to be wealthier, more of them could vote which meant they
dominated local councils and ruled in their own interests which made Catholics
resentful.
Poorer Catholics who did not own companies got less votes, which resulted in them
being unable to obtain any say in the government or gain political power.

Lack of opportunities for social

interaction

Residential areas

The Catholics and the Protestants live in separate neighborhoods. This causes them
to have minimal interaction with one another and have a lack of. Hence, the 2
communities remain physically separated with little opportunity for socializing.
Separate school system
Also, there are separate school systems in Northern Ireland and this ensures that
the 2 communities do not get much chance to interact with one another from a
young age. Protestant pupils attended British schools which focus on British sports
and history while the catholic schools attended by the Catholic pupils focus on Irish
sports and heritage. Thus from young, the 2 communities see themselves
differently and thus, leading to the lack of unity in NI.

Feelings
1. Divided Loyalties

Loyalty to different countries made the

Protestants and Catholics intolerant of each
other and for there to be little understanding
and co-operation between them.

2. Unequal employment opportunities

Unequal employment opportunities affected

their economic position and standard of living
and thus, were very unhappy that they were
being discriminated and were suffering from
economic hardships.

3. Unequal housing allocation

Being poorer, they depended on government

housing and the unequal housing allocation
affected their quality of life negatively, angering
them.

4. Lack of voting rights

5. Lack of opportunities for social

interaction

This unfair system led many Catholics to dislike

the Protestants as they were in control of the NI
government and was causing this unfairness.
Due to a lack of interaction, the generations of
Protestants and Catholics children will grew up
distrusting and being hostile to each other.

CONSEQUENCES

Bloody Sunday
In Northern Ireland, 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators are shot dead by British Army
paratroopers in an event that becomes known as Bloody Sunday. The protesters, all Northern
Catholics, were marching in protest of the British policy of internment of suspected Irish nationalists.
British authorities had ordered the march banned, and sent troops to confront the demonstrators
when it went ahead. The soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters, killing 13 and
wounding 17.

Social Segregation
People in Northern Ireland have grown up in an atmosphere of tension and violence.
The Protestants and Catholics have also been segregated socially resulting in them
being unable to interact with each other to promote better understanding and
conflict resolution.

Declining Economy
The economy of Northern Ireland has been affected because the violence discourages
domestic and foreign investment in the country as investors are put off by the rising
cost of security and the threat of bombings.
The violence and bombings have also destroyed property and infrastructure. As the
economy is in decline, there is little money to be obtained to rebuild the damaged
infrastructure.
Progress and development in Northern Ireland would be slowed down leading to
economic hardship and a lower standards of living.

Political Reform
The Civil Rights Marches/Movement put pressure on the Northern Ireland government
to pass anti-discrimination measures in Northern Ireland.
The unfair voting system was abolished and promises were also made to review the
schemes for allocating government-owned houses.
However, despite these efforts, other discriminatory policies continue to remain and
efforts to bring about power-sharing have not been successful as the different
political parties refuse to share power.

MY REFLECTION