Us and Them

It takes a bit of time spent in Northern Ireland to discover the undercurrent of prejudice that is a part of life here. Sectarian attitudes are only steadfastly held by a minority but the fabric, structure and habitual behaviour in everyday life of Northern Ireland is informed by an entrenched conflict between what it means to be Protestant and to be Catholic.

There are severe cases of sectarian division such as attacks by dissident republicans on the Police Service of Northern Ireland, or violence against Catholic persons by groups of Protestants. Violent attacks are not usually calculated or planned and in some instances seem to be the anti-social behaviour of young people who have ignorantly adopted the cause of an older generation.

But it is clear in some of the more lighthearted banter of the majority here that there seem to be recognizable differences between Protestants and Catholics that can be objects of amusement for both. The Northern Irish will usually be able to quickly determine whether someone they’re meeting for the first time is a Catholic or another denomination. Names can be very clearly Catholic if they are traditionally Irish, such as the girl’s name “Grainne” or the boy’s “Daire/Darragh”. Catholics pronounce the letter “H” as “haitch”. Some even joke that they can tell a Catholic or a Protestant just by looking at them – red hair can be a give away apparently! Whilst wearing a Rangers top is on a par with singing the British National Anthem.

Other identifiers are where people are from and where they live within a city. Belfast is divided between North, South, East and West and each area has its own reputation. West Belfast includes the infamous Falls Road and is well known for being at the heart of the Troubles and where Catholics will live in the likes of Andersonstown. Whereas South Belfast today has a reputation mostly for being a more economically advantaged part of Belfast with new Protestant professionals taking up homes there. Derry is another city that is rife with interface areas: where Protestant and Catholic communities live side by side. What you call Derry is also indicative: saying “Londonderry” instead of “Derry” shows an alliance with Protestant unionism. There are rural areas with similar reputations for allegiances too.

Of course these are all assumptions and biases that most will not stick to or take too much to heart. But they do remain indicators to discover what relations you might experience with someone new.

A 40-year-old friend from Holywood told me once that people from Northern Ireland “don’t care if you’re black, white or green… they care if you’re a Protestant or a Catholic”. I think this comment is telling. My friend is also gay and I’d asked him if he felt the LGBT society in Northern Ireland came up against more prejudice here than it might in other regions of the UK. He didn’t think it did. He praised the Northern Irish people for their modern attitudes towards homosexuality and race… but the one distinction they couldn’t look beyond was religion.

The tensions between the religious ideologies can be felt if you walk through different parts of Belfast today. Like any other city you have “bad” areas right next door to “good” ones. And the “bad” should not be avoided if you want to get on with your everyday life. What’s difficult to see is if Northern Ireland will ever be able to shake off sectarian attitudes entirely. Even the most subtle assumptions about someone’s religion made simply by how they pronounce the letter “h” has become a habitual behaviour for many. Even younger generations inherit an awareness of differences (whether they think badly of these differences is dependent on numerous other individual factors).

Not least is it difficult to see when sectarian values will end whilst Belfast continues to make a tourist industry out of its sectarian past – the Black cab tours through West Belfast are expected to be informative of the clashes between Protestant and Catholic communities and charge around £9 per person for the privilege. Sectarianism is embedded in the society here and until authorities and independent organisations make a conscious effort to dig it out many may continue to just accept it as part of being Northern Irish.