Paper Summary:

This paper is an in-depth examination of the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The author summarizes the history of religious conflict in Northern Ireland and looks at the recent attempts to end decades of violence. An historical background on the troubles is detailed and includes the policy of "Home Rule," The Ireland Act of 1920, which divided Ireland into North and South, the suspension of Northern Ireland's government in 1972 and finally the successful attempts in the 1990s to broker an agreement between the two parties. The author then looks at the religious makeup of Ireland and the divisions between the Catholic and Protestant populations which, according to the author, caused politics to become a proxy for religion. The author then looks at the how the divisions in the populations of South African and Northern Ireland impeded their roads to independence.

From the Paper:

"About two-fifths of the population is Roman Catholic, while more than one-fifth is Presbyterian, with less than one-fifth Episcopalian (Church of Ireland); Methodists and members of other sects make up most of the remainder. The distribution of Catholics and Protestants is, however, very uneven by region . In country districts the latter are in a majority in the north and east. Elsewhere they are in a minority, though fairly highly localized. Most towns have a Protestant majority: this is the case in Belfast, where Catholics make up less than one-third of the population. Towns remote from Belfast (including Newry and Londonderry) are more than half Roman Catholic. In each of these towns themselves there is a high degree of segregation of the sects, and mixing is minimal and segregation increases as socioeconomic status decreases." Civil disturbances are almost always confined to locations in which segregation is highest."

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