PRC-UTE
30th March 2007, 03:42
Were more sectarian than ever before
A new book Belfast:Segregation, Violence and the City (Pluto Press 2006) by Peter Shirlow and Brendan Murtagh has been called a ground breaking analysis of the present state of Irish society and one of the few studies on society in Ireland in the period following the Good Friday Agreement. To Republican Socialists, it confirms what weve been saying for years.
According to the authors, there are as many as 26 peace barriers in Belfast, some have stood longer than the Berlin wall did with a handful going back as far as the 1830s. The authors argue peace lines and barriers fail to prevent sectarian attacks and murders. Their basis for this conclusion is that 70% of killings during the recent conflict were within 500 yards of a peace barrier.
Alone in North Belfast, there were 6623 sectarian occurrences from 1996 to 2004. North Belfast is deeply divided, according to the authors, less than one in five Protestants will refuse to use the shops in Catholic Ardoyne, and 82% of Catholics will refuse to use the nearby leisure centre in Ballysillan.
This is not a phenomenon unique to North Belfast; we have seen similar cases in East and West Belfast with people travelling considerable distances into areas where their religion is numerically stronger for essential services. This mentality hampers any prospect for integration, Shirlow comments Youd see a playground on one side of the fence, and it was out of bounds for the kids on the other side of the fence. Generation after generation is growing up like this.
Even more worrying is the fact that 11% of Catholics and 7% of Protestants have settled in mixed areas. Catholic neighbours on the opposite side of the barriers now have greater opportunities in terms of employment which they never once had. This attitude has further exacerbated feelings of isolation and abandonment for Protestants. These feelings openly antagonise and give rise to the Loyalist siege mentality.
As a consequence of this, sectarian and racist attacks are on the increase. Loyalist paramilitaries have expanded their traditional links with rightwing organisations in Europe and Britain. In the north, we had 41 racist incidents in 1996 but that had risen to 936 in the past year. In a survey published in July 2006 showed 33% of Protestants admitted to being prejudiced, compared to 18% of Catholics.
According to Paul Doherty, in his book Ethnic Residential Segregation in Belfast, a decline in levels of segregation in terms of living was only noted after 25 to 30 years. Currently, the only signs of a decline in segregation are in exclusively middle-class areas where people are less likely to vote for either Sinn Fein or the DUP. Belfast now has a faade it never once had; trendy clubs, restaurants, bars, avenues lined with expensive shops are a common sight but serve to mask the true nature of the state. The price of fuel and food compared to the UK is higher and 8 out of 10 of the UKs lowest paid black spots are in the north.
rabhlid sisiala
http://www.rsym.org/reabhloid/?p=4
A new book Belfast:Segregation, Violence and the City (Pluto Press 2006) by Peter Shirlow and Brendan Murtagh has been called a ground breaking analysis of the present state of Irish society and one of the few studies on society in Ireland in the period following the Good Friday Agreement. To Republican Socialists, it confirms what weve been saying for years.
According to the authors, there are as many as 26 peace barriers in Belfast, some have stood longer than the Berlin wall did with a handful going back as far as the 1830s. The authors argue peace lines and barriers fail to prevent sectarian attacks and murders. Their basis for this conclusion is that 70% of killings during the recent conflict were within 500 yards of a peace barrier.
Alone in North Belfast, there were 6623 sectarian occurrences from 1996 to 2004. North Belfast is deeply divided, according to the authors, less than one in five Protestants will refuse to use the shops in Catholic Ardoyne, and 82% of Catholics will refuse to use the nearby leisure centre in Ballysillan.
This is not a phenomenon unique to North Belfast; we have seen similar cases in East and West Belfast with people travelling considerable distances into areas where their religion is numerically stronger for essential services. This mentality hampers any prospect for integration, Shirlow comments Youd see a playground on one side of the fence, and it was out of bounds for the kids on the other side of the fence. Generation after generation is growing up like this.
Even more worrying is the fact that 11% of Catholics and 7% of Protestants have settled in mixed areas. Catholic neighbours on the opposite side of the barriers now have greater opportunities in terms of employment which they never once had. This attitude has further exacerbated feelings of isolation and abandonment for Protestants. These feelings openly antagonise and give rise to the Loyalist siege mentality.
As a consequence of this, sectarian and racist attacks are on the increase. Loyalist paramilitaries have expanded their traditional links with rightwing organisations in Europe and Britain. In the north, we had 41 racist incidents in 1996 but that had risen to 936 in the past year. In a survey published in July 2006 showed 33% of Protestants admitted to being prejudiced, compared to 18% of Catholics.
According to Paul Doherty, in his book Ethnic Residential Segregation in Belfast, a decline in levels of segregation in terms of living was only noted after 25 to 30 years. Currently, the only signs of a decline in segregation are in exclusively middle-class areas where people are less likely to vote for either Sinn Fein or the DUP. Belfast now has a faade it never once had; trendy clubs, restaurants, bars, avenues lined with expensive shops are a common sight but serve to mask the true nature of the state. The price of fuel and food compared to the UK is higher and 8 out of 10 of the UKs lowest paid black spots are in the north.
rabhlid sisiala
http://www.rsym.org/reabhloid/?p=4