Religion Separatism in Northern Ireland

Religion Separatism in Northern Ireland

Throughout history, the desire for a group identity has created the

political and religious divisions of the world. As members of the

human race, we define ourselves as a distinct group, and this

inclination for categorisation and identity formation pervades all

human existence. The need to have an "other" is the basic driving

force that has started wars, created religions and forged boundaries

and borders. This need for inclusion of those like "us", and exclusion

of the other, or those not like us has led us to having an identity

that relates not to any genetic difference, but our social

environment. The history of Northern Ireland can be viewed in a

context of difference, and it is from this perspective that I shall be

discussing how this need for inclusion and exclusion have manifested

in the social and political structure that exists today, as

exemplified by the events in 2001 at The Holy Cross Primary School.

The Holy Cross Primary School was an all girls' Catholic school,

situated on the boundary of the Protestant and Catholic areas of

Aerodyne. Violence erupted on the first day of school in August 2001

as Protestant protestors lined the streets objecting to Catholics

using the front entrance of the school as it was in a Protestant area.

However, the back entrance was located in a Catholic area and

Protestants wanted the Catholics to use this rather than walking down

"their" road.

Sinn Fein was encouraging Catholic parents to use the road as an act

of defiance and the security forces had to be brought in to protect

girls as young as four. The Catholics saw it as their right to us...

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... so many of the Catholics stayed in the north and

particularly in Belfast. This caused a great deal of friction and by

the late 60's English troops had to be sent in to suppress the civil

unrest that was getting out of hand for the security forces. This new

era for Ireland (with the streets being patrolled by the army) came

with Internment for suspected terrorists without trial, Bloody Sunday

where British troops opened fire on protestors, and culminated in the

Northern Ireland parliament being scrapped in 1972.

As can be seen from the events outlined above, our need to define

ourselves in relation to a "them" and "us" concept has created a

social environment where the separation of groups has occurred. This

religious separatism became politicised and embedded in the social and

economic structure of Northern Ireland.