Northern Ireland – source related study

1) Source A depicts the job problems that the Catholics faced in Ulster in the 60's. It Shows the employment figures of a variety of different companies, and then tells us how many of these employees are Protestant or Catholic. The first example of the problems faced is at the Belfast shipyard; where there were 10,000 people employed, of which only 400 were Catholic. Considering this was the biggest source of employment in the town, and wasn't exactly a cushy job, you would have expected a much larger number of people working there who were Catholic.

However, this was not the case, and was the same everywhere else. In Fermanagh, the county council employed 370 people. Only 48 of these people were Catholic, and none of those people had decent or upper class jobs. This didn't change with bus drivers either. 75 bus drivers were employed in Fermanagh, and only 7 of them were Catholic. And considering that over half of Fermanagh was Catholic, this meant that there would have been a lot of Catholics left without jobs in the city. Therefore, the difficulties faced by Catholics in the 60's were that they were discriminated against by the Protestants.

This only shows the job problems they had, but they did face many other daunting problems in the 60's. 2) Source B helps assess the discrimination of Catholics to a certain extent. This is because it is coming from a reliable source. Billy Sinclair used to be the manager of Linfield football club and saw the sort of discrimination he is talking about with his own eyes. The sort of discrimination he is talking about is that if a football scout for a Northern Irish club spots a good young footballer that is from a catholic school, they won't take him on as a player.

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This is obviously because he is a Catholic, so he wouldn't be accepted in a protestant team. However, this source only comes from one person, and could be helped by being backed up by other people who also manage football clubs, or even from football scouts themselves. Also, source C says that as many protestant people should be in work during times when job opportunities are poor. They would prefer to keep more protestant, unqualified people in work instead of Catholics who could possibly do a better job.

This is clear discrimination against the cleverer Catholic people within Ulster. This is a very useful source in assessing the discrimination against Catholics, as it comes from an organisation, rather than just a single person making a statement about the discrimination against young Catholic footballers. 3) The reason that Londonderry became the centre of a civil rights movement was that the Catholics got fed up with the living conditions (as shown in source D) and the voting system in the city. As source D shows, the living conditions were absolutely diabolical.

The picture shows an outdoor bath and outhouse, which was very common amongst Catholics houses. However, the Protestants would have had much nicer, indoor bathrooms and toilets, instead of being out in the cold. So that is why the Catholics were fed up with the housing. Also, the way the voting system was set up was biased towards the Protestants. The Catholics were all crammed into one voting area of Londonderry, while the Protestants were spread over two voting areas, meaning that in those two areas, there would be more Protestant votes, meaning more Protestants councillors.

The three sources all agree with each other when it comes to talking about the discrimination that the Catholics faced in Ulster. They all show a factor which proves the way that the Catholics were treated. The Catholics within Ulster do get mistreated by the Protestants, even if they are only out of line slightly. The smallest crime could lead to a beating and even a jail sentence, which is how extreme the prejudice is in Ireland. Londonderry became the centre of the civil rights movement in Ireland because it was the main centre of violence in the whole of Eire and Ulster.

There was an equal balance of Protestants and Catholics, but there was an un-equal balance in the society. The Protestants always treated the Catholics with prejudice, and never let go of their stronghold over the weaker community. These factors aggravated the Catholics and eventually led them to start up the civil rights movement. After the civil rights movement had started, people from all across Eire and Ulster got involved and were hoping for a united Ireland. 4) In source G, Rev. Ian Paisley said that the IRA and the people who supported it where behind the Civil Rights movement.

What he effectively meant was that the Catholics were behind the civil rights movement, which is not the way that Michael Farrell thought about it in source H. He said that there were some Catholics that believed in civil rights, but it was mainly the Protestants that were in charge of the movement. Therefore, he doesn't agree with the way Paisley saw the civil rights movement. However, Source I Does agree with Paisley more than source H. It says that the membership was mostly Catholic, and that the IRA was closely involved in the civil rights movement.

However, it does also say that there were Protestants involved, so it doesn't completely agree with the comments made by Paisley. 5) The picture in source J, which was drawn by a Northern Irish political cartoonist, does help portray why the trouble continued into the 90's. It shows five different groups walking around a never-ending staircase which doesn't lead anywhere. Four of the groups (Religion, Politics, Workers and Civilians) are walking up the staircase, working there way up to a better Ireland.

However, the other group (the paramilitaries) is walking down the staircase, as they try to cause trouble and want to keep Eire and Ulster separate. They like to stir up the trouble between the Protestants and Catholics and cause riots. The peace process was being lead by Religion, which is why they are at the front of the staircase in the picture. Then the politics follow the Religion as they wanted the fighting and riots to end as it would mean they would get more votes.

Then the workers followed the politics as they were drawn in by the things that the governments promised they would do. And the civilians follow the workers as they are mainly their husbands that are working, and the civilians are mainly women and their children. Also, on the side of the wall it has graffiti that says "REM 1960 ULSTER" which is referring to the Battle of the Boyne. This was obviously when William of Orange and his protestant followers invaded Ireland and took over what is now known as Ulster.

This is to remind people that the rift between the Protestants and Catholics still exists because of this event. Another bit of graffiti says "1916" which refers to the Easter rising on April 24th. There was also the Good Friday agreement of 1998. Sinn Fein was reluctant to sign the document, but in the end gave in. There was an uprising, however, after the document had been signed. This was because it meant that paramilitary prisoners were released. This caused unrest between the two parties, and caused more riots.

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