Migratory flows (16th–19th century)

Closed minds and walled off zones

The past centuries' history of sound and fury was in its last throes with the advent of the Free State in 1921. By 1949, it had shaken off its last political bonds with the United Kingdom, its former coloniser, shedding its dominion[1] status to become a republic in its own right. Admission to the European Community in 1973 diminished its ongoing economic dependency. After the partition[2] of the island, its northmost corner that Protestants insist on calling Ulster had known 50 years of peace. Thus two nationalisms had obtained a State that represented their interests and in each, large sections of officialdom ranked religion at the top of their values, thereby legitimising it. In the South, once the Protestant Ascendency[3] landlords had been compensated, the Protestant presence ceased being a problem ; with their domains repurchased and allocated to Irish peasant farmers, they left the island or settled down quietly. In the North, a two third Protestant majority maintained a political stability that served its ends. Then, in 1969, violence flared up between the two communities. Three decades of conflict ensued with a toll of 3,600 dead and some 30,000 wounded before 10 years of painstaking negotiations finally put paid to the “troubles”. The devolution of the Province with its own decontaminated, non-partisan institutions, keeps it within the Union to the satisfaction of the Protestants, but allows for the democratic possibility of an eventual reunification of the island by referendum, which gives hope to the Catholics.

However, the fading of one of the most controlled borders in Western Europe and the relative prosperity of the Province, have not altered the entrenched and enduring segregation of (notably working-class) neighbourhoods. Only 5% of schools accept children of both faiths. State schools teach Protestant children and Catholic maintained schools the Catholic. Students of both confessions come together at university but this after studying, throughout their school years, history curriculums the impartiality of which leaves room for doubt. Furthermore, young Protestants practise English sports (football, rugby) while the Catholics play Gaelic football or Hurling[4]. Toponymy and Christian names vary according to confessional obedience. Still in 2010 the media had a field day with the hardliners in both camps as the Marching Season[5] unfolded. Between April and August, these parades celebrate such occasions as the 12th of July Battle of the Boyne (1690) won by William of Orange[6] over deposed Catholic king James II[7]. One month later in (London)Derry, the Protestants honour their Apprentice Boys who in 1688 lived through a pitiless siege after shutting the gates to the Jacobite monarch. In October the Reformation Day Parades commemorate the publication of Luther's thesis at Wittenberg, the founding act of Protestantism.

Every year the authorities anticipate trouble because in the seventies the number of marches quadrupled providing the Protestants with opportunities for sorties that challenged the demarcation of Catholic territory. It must be noted that, especially in the cities, each community's territory is clearly marked out : pavement curbs in different colours, murals, flags (the Union jack or the Republic's flag) hanging from the windows. Clashes tend to arise, for instance when the “walk” (the term preferred by the Orange Order) advertised by the loud echoes of the Lambeg drum[8] is perceived as a triumphalist assertion of domination, a way of saying « this is our land ; know your place ». In Belfast, some twenty Peace lines[9] keep feuding communities apart for instance on the Shankill and Falls Roads. Meanwhile in the South, manifest in the renewed interest in the traditional Gaelic sports and language, identity concerns run high : since the nineties, the Celtic Tiger rides the crests and troughs of a turbulent economy which has drawn to the country a Polish influx of migrants – Catholic though they be.

It is as though the mental and physical barriers erected throughout history between the two communities, were edgily swapping sides. Enforced or sought after, their demarcations have been kept up by two states born of ethnic and religious conflicts and of quasi colonial relations that run from the Plantagenets' Pale to the six Counties kept in the Union via the Ulster Plantations

The conflicts are both ethnic and religious : their identity driven ideologies are not confined to religion. Despite the antagonistic representations all too readily bandied around by each community, it does seem that the implementation of anti-Catholic laws was not as harsh as was long believed. The deportations across the Shannon in 1653-1655 for instance targeted thousands of people but were never fully implemented. The Penal Laws (1695-1727) were enforced with varying degrees of severity according to the local balance of power and the magistrates' inclinations. Officers of the State soon recognised the virtues of flexibility. After all, the discriminatory policies of the 16th to 18th centuries aimed to meet the economic interests of the ‘ascendant' class much more than to convert the downtrodden one. Anti-catholic laws were only ever fully enforced at times of grave danger (for instance the 1715 invasion). At other times the authorities did not interfere with the Catholics' religious observance, for which leniency they expected gratitude.

In order to explain current history's gripes, dwelling on the past representations that each opponent harbours of the other is of the essence.

Before setting forth the reasons to hope for an appeasement of these long-standing conflicts, an anti-Catholic feelings at least as old as the Reformation needs examining which, half way through the 19th century, stood as some sort of national institution and remains to this day an obstacle to genuine Britishness.

Then we shall turn our attention to the past of humiliation, spoliation, dejection that embitters the Catholic psyche, although the acrimony has considerably dropped as a result of the societal upheavals in the Republic.

  1. Dominion

    Status replacing that of colony in the British Empire, best described at an Imperial Conference of 1926 as “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown.”. It was granted to Canada, Australia, New Zeeland and Newfoundland in 1907, to South-Africa in 1910 and to Ireland in 1922.

  2. Partition

    After the Government of Ireland Act (1920), the island of Ireland was divided into two distinct territories : Ulster or Northern Ireland (one of the four component parts of the United Kingdom) and an independent state: the Irish Free Sate, latterly the Republic of Ireland or Eire.

  3. Protestant Ascendency

    The Protestant Ascendency (or, in Ireland the Ascendency) refers to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by Protestant elites, all members of the Established Church (the Church of Ireland and Church of England), during the 17th through 19th centuries – and, in a portion of the island, into the 20th century. The object was to exclude primarily the Roman Catholic majority of the Irish population guilty of serial rebellions. However, members of the Presbyterians and other Protestant denominations, along with non-Christians, were also excluded politically and socially.

  4. Hurling and Gaelic Football

    Hurling is an outdoor team game played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar, a hard solid sphere slightly larger than a tennis ball, resembling an American baseball. Gaelic football is played mainly in Ireland with fifteen players it admits of goals (3 pts) kicked in the bottom netted half of a goal otherwise resembling a rugby goal, or over the crossbar (1pt) ; it shares aspects of football and rugby. Together with hurling, it is one of the two most popular spectator sports in the Republic of Ireland and both are played around the world in the Irish Diaspora.

  5. Marching Season

    In Northern Ireland, parades are an important part of the culture. Although the majority of parades are held ostensibly by Orange men (Protestant, loyalist groups), nationalist, republican and non-political groups also march. Some marches, territorial and sectarian, have been the cause of serious unrest. However in recent years the vast majority of parades have occurred peacefully. A Parades Commission has been set up to settle disputes about controversial parades.

  6. William of Orange (1650-1702)

    Stateholder of the United Provinces from 1672, he answered the call of the English Parliament, landed at the head of army, bringing about James II's fall in 1688. Crowned king or England (jointly with Mary, his wife and James's daughter), he reigned until his death allowing Parliament a broadly free hand.

  7. James II (1633-1701)

    James succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ireland. Set on a collision course with Parliament on political and religious grounds (he was a Catholic), he was ousted in 1688 by William of Orange, Stadtholder of the United Provinces who landed at the head of an army at the invitation of Parliament (Glorious Revolution). Exiled in France he would fail to recover his throne.

  8. Lambeg drum

    A very large and extremely loud bass drum beaten with curved Malacca canes. It would traditionally be accompanied by fifes. Nowadays, these instruments are not so frequently used in parades.

  9. Peace lines

    A series of separation barriers in Northern Ireland that separate Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods. They have been built at urban interface areas in Belfast, Derry, Portadown and elsewhere. Their object is to minimize inter-communal violence. They vary in length (from a few hundred metres to 5 km) and height (up to 7 metres in places).

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AccueilAccueilImprimerImprimer Richard Tholoniat, Professeur émérite à l'Université du Maine (France) Paternité - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de ModificationRéalisé avec Scenari (nouvelle fenêtre)