A Protestant view of Northern Ireland:

...These suspicions have been barriers to any progress along the road to political partnership or powersharing between majority and minority...

...Violence on the part of Northern Ireland Roman Catholics, for instance, did not take the form it typically does with materially deprived minorities, namely the looting that one saw in the black ghettos of America in the 1960s...

...Probably the British patriotism of the loyal Northern Irish was rather too old-fashioned and embarrassing to the British...

...At their own wish, they have had a separate education system of their own, parallel to the non-sectarian state system, with over 95 percent of its cost met out of public funds...

...Employment is another area where discrimination against Roman Catholics has been alleged...

...Furthermore to describe towns like Dungan-non and Enniskillen as gerrymandered when controlled by the majority population of the town is a mischievious misuse of the term...

...There is probably no other country in the world with a population of mixed religious affiliation where a minority religious group has been treated so generously in education...

...that discrimination was practiced by private firms...

...They do not, however, see themselves as Scots or English men or women, any more than a Texan must be Yankee to be an American...

...Barritt and C.F...

...Catholic and Protestant identification is very important, but the basic dispute is political, one of rival nationalisms...

...those who were disenfranchised were lodgers, servants, and others of voting age living at home and not paying local taxes...

...reverend Robert cobain 'is the Information Officer for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and editor of the Presbyterian Herald, the official magazine of the Presbyterian Church...

...The "spoils" system operated in Northern Ireland just as in the U.S., Great Britain, and in fact the world over...

...67, 97-99), show that in Newry, "out of 765 council houses, 743 were occupied by Catholics and 22 by Protestants" while no Protestants at all were employed by the local council...

...The IRA guerrillas have banked on this fact to persuade many Irish-American Catholics to back their ostensible cause of "Brits out for a reunited Ireland...

...Roman Catholics and their advocates have time and time again claimed that the franchise vote was unfair...

...Stabane had a proportion of nationalist councilors virtually identical with the proportion of Roman Catholics...

...These and other traceable social habits of Northern Ireland Roman Catholics are sufficient to account for Roman Catholic disadvantage in employment without recourse to selective instances to support a theory of significant discrimination of the sort advanced by David R. Lowry (Commonweal, July 16, 1982) on the basis of an Irish Times article of last March 29 which was headed "Overhaul of Northern Ireland Job Agency Urged...

...Ireland had a four times greater chance of obtaining a subsidized public authority home than was available to their co-religionists in the Irish Republic...

...The All Party Anti-Partition Conference, based in the Irish Republic, published a pamphlet One Vote Equals Two in which it said, "Only a carefully organized plan could provide this uniformity of discrimination" in almost every local government area in the Six Counties...

...but equally it has to be said that Roman Catholic councils also discriminated against Protestants...

...It is unfortunately true that Unionism was sectarian in making no real attempt to recruit Roman Catholics as members of the party and as candidates for election...

...Those who paid local taxes had the right to vote...

...When you look at the facts you find that just over 1 percent of the local government electorate were affected by the business electorate...

...The call for civil rights put "the Irish Question" back into the center of British politics by presenting the Northern Irish situation in terms of discrimination by bigoted Protestants and enabling the Roman Catholic leaders to recruit support from most English left-wing and liberal opinion...

...ALL THIS suggests that Roman Catholic grievances, at least those specific ones having to do with discrimination, were exaggerated, and that nationalist feeling was a much stronger force in the Roman Catholic community and in the civil rights movement than is generally acknowledged...

...The terrorist activities in Ireland will fade in direct proportion to the willingness of Irish-Americans to question and challenge the IRA's propaganda...

...Lacking capital or land, Catholics have drifted towards the teaching profession, the legal profession, the theater, and so on...

...P. A. Compton, a lecturer in geography at Queen's University, Belfast, pointed out in 1976 that Roman Catholics were disadvantaged "not so much as the result of discrimination but because of their larger family size...

...It's rather similar to Mexican-Americans looking to Mexico...

...The 1971 census figures showed that it had apparently been one-twelfth harder for a Roman Catholic to be employed than for a Protestant...

...With the minority questioning the legitimacy of an independent Northern state, the majority naturally questioned the loyalty of the minority to that state...

...In Downpatrick, where only 68 percent of the adult population was Roman Catholic, Catholics were 91.7 percent of the councilors...

...Protestant councils no doubt did discriminate against Roman Catholics...

...Roman Catholics in Northern...

...Protestants like myself are willing to grant a measure of truth to these claims, but we do not believe that a close examination of the facts shows that discrimination is really the key which explains Northern Ireland's travail...

...NORTHERN IRELAND is torn by two different sets of nationalist aspirations, each rooted in history, each with its own measure of validity...

...There is a significant upward mobility taking place among the Roman Catholic community, especially since the 1944 Education Act opened new possibilities for the less privileged...

...While discrimination should not be tolerated whenever and wherever it can be corrected, it is also a fact of life - and hardly in Northern Ireland alone...

...Throughout all Western countries, the burden of unemployment is at least twice as heavy among young workers, and this affects the Roman Catholic communities' employment prospects in Northern Ireland...

...I. Bridge and C. O'Leary, in their study Belfast: Approach to Crisis, A Study of Belfast Politics 1613-1970, showed that 28 percent of adult Roman Catholics and 18.5 percent of Protestants were unable to vote in local elections...

...But with active and passive resistance, and opposition to the Unionist government by the majority of Roman Catholics who refused for so long to be a true opposition in a political sense, the Protestants became engrained with a will to make the system of government work despite Roman Catholic non-participation in any real sense...

...Our hope is that Americans show themselves open to both sides of the situation here, that they hear the Northern Ireland majority's voice and ponder that side of the question...

...This is certainly not evidence for a "carefully organized plan" to prevent Roman Catholic control as alleged by the All Party Anti-Partition Conference...

...It also needs to be noted and underlined that both Bal-lycastie and Limavady had Protestant majorities yet were governed by nationalist councils...

...Bernadette McAliskey (formerly Bernadette Devlin) said in Price of My Soul that discrimination "is only less serious on the Catholic side because there are fewer Catholic bosses and fewer local authorities in a position to practice discrimination...

...I would argue, instead, that the Roman Catholic support for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and the violence associated with its campaign showed a more traditional nationalist flavor than is generally admitted...

...Certainly nothing comparable is done at public expense for separate Roman Catholic education in Britain or in the U.S...

...They are opposed to a "United Ireland'' which they believe would sever them from their cultural and historical roots...

...that there was gerrymandering in local councils...

...There is little doubt that Roman Catholics, like Presbyterians in the past, suffer in that they have a weaker economic base to start with than is the case in the Protestant community as a whole...

...THE EDITORS ROBERT COBAIN WHAT is the conflict in Northern Ireland about...

...It does not present itself as an alternative that necessarily excludes the view I have just described...

...The majority of the people in Northern Ireland, mostly members of various Protestant churches, with a Scotch-Irish or Anglo-Irish tradition, see their national life and loyalties in terms of union with the "mainland" of Great Britain...

...Carter in The Northern Ireland Problem: A Study in Group Relations (pp...

...The manipulation of ward boundaries coupled with franchise restrictions led, it is said, to Roman Catholics being denied control of local areas in which they held a majority...

...The quarrel springs from the reality of the divided communities in Northern Ireland...

...A higher birth rate means more young people in the work force...

...Instead,it was directed toward the symbols of the state...

...Discrimination against Roman Catholics by some Protestant firms did take place, but Barritt and Carter show that employment policies of non-Roman Catholic firms were variable and many employed Roman Catholics.You get a distorted picture of Northern Ireland society if you focus solely on the tendency of Protestant employers to hire Protestant workers...

...In any case, the British government's lack of understanding, combined with what many feel is a bias against the loyalist majority and in favor of the Roman Catholic minority, has resulted in its failure so far to find a policy to deal with the Northern Ireland problem...

...Lowry should have focused his attention on the Republic of Ireland itself where Roman Catholics must be discriminated against, according to 1971 census figures...

...Protestants are inclined to do the same...

...Other evidence supports this view...

...The 1971 census figures show that Roman Catholic households in Northern Ireland, in proportion to their number, were occupying a share of public authority housing units which was over 25 percent bigger than the proportionate share occupied by their Protestant neighbors...

...Nonetheless, "one man, one vote" did not reduce the violence...

...A province-wide survey shows also that where Roman Catholics were in control of councils there was a greater bias in the treatment of Protestants, e.g., 20.4 percent of Protestants lived in council houses and had 3.7 percent working for the council while 40.6 percent of Roman Catholics lived in council houses and had 5.3 percent working for the council...

...The minority in Northern Ireland, mostly members of the Roman Catholic church, cherish their Irish tradition and think more in terms of a closer union with the Irish Republic...

...The redrawing of local council boundaries, a massive house-building program, and an allocation system for housing that favored Roman Catholics did not reduce the violence...

...The emphasis is therefore on personal attainment...

...It is not, at least as this Presbyterian sees it, a "war of religion...

...Most journalists, academics, and commissions of inquiry have put forward the theory that the reason for the violence from the Roman Catholic community in the period 1968 to 1971 and for the rise of the Provisional I.R.A...

...His article follows...

...Robert McCartney, Q.C., a new name in the Unionist ranks, has expressed his desire to reform the Unionist party to make it more attractive to Roman Catholics...

...it simply tends to overshadow it...

...The reason for this difference is the higher Roman Catholic birth rate...

...It is natural, in view of social and residential segregation and communal solidarity, that where possible Roman Catholics patronize Roman Catholic stores, Roman Catholic professionals, and Roman Catholic businesses...

...Moreover, reforms did come...

...Roman Catholics are members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Ulster Defence Regiment although they are under 3 percent, mainly due to intimidation...

...Reverend Cobain promised to send us an analysis of the situation ' 'from a Protestant point of view...

...One final sad fact is that the Northern Ireland government showed a singular incapacity to gather and present facts which might have amply vindicated its performance in many fields...

...was the systematic discrimination practiced against Catholics by Protestants...

...There, only 6.99 percent of male Roman Catholics were in the professional and managerial class as against 15.08 percent of male Protestants...

...Yet lower Roman Catholic representation in this class in the North of Ireland is cited as evidence of blatant discrimination on the part of Protestants...

...It focuses on recent, concrete grievances rather than deep historical divisions...

...They are opposed to Britain and the "statehood" of Northern Ireland...

...and that a lack of investment led to higher rates of unemployment in Roman Catholic areas...

...and ponder that side of the question...

...Was it that the old system was not, after all, so inequitable or, more importantly, were the nationalist leaders not really interested in reforms but rather revolution...

...Had his government been effectively monitoring the results of its own social policies and legislation, he would have had an inkling of what the 1971 census showed and could have forestalled those unjust charges which, in the end, the Northern Ireland Government dumbly accepted and needlessly suffered for...

...Size of family also affects the readiness either to pursue higher education or to take up "dead-end" jobs when young...

...For example, in spite of the grave doubts which Richard Rose of Queen's University, Belfast, in 1971 threw on the Cameron Commission's sweeping allegations about religious discrimination in public authority housing, Lord O'Neill in 1972 was still commending the Cameron report as a "textbook" for reform...

...Last year we were visited by the Reverend Robert Cobain, Information Officer of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland...

...They were aided by the lack of knowledge of most journalists and politicians concerning Northern Ireland...

...THE ISSUE IS NATIONALISM, NOT DISCRIMINATION A Protestant view of Northern Ireland Over the last three years, Commonweal has published half a dozen articles analyzing various aspects of the conflict in Northern Ireland and the efforts to resolve it...

...Most writers said the local government franchise giving extra votes to businessmen was grossly biased against Roman Catholics...

...On 1961 figures that meant that 75,865 Roman Catholics and 109,407 Protestants were disenfranchised in Belfast...

...There is, however, another interpretation of the conflict in Northern Ireland...

...But if the struggle is seen as one of simple discrimination, then naturally all sympathy goes to the underdog...

...that the allocation of houses and jobs by local councils was weighted against the Roman Catholic community...

...In education, Roman Catholics have always been given particularly favorable treatment in Northern Ireland...

...Catholics participating in violence revealed themselves as essentially political and concerned with overthrowing the Unionist government...

...THE CONTROL of local authorities was important in Northern Ireland before the reform of local government took place because the councils allocated housing and jobs...

...If major conclusions are going to be based on charges of discrimination, then we are obliged to look carefully at the degree of discrimination, and how and why it was exercised, and by whom...

...Statistics just prior to 1967 do not support this picture of discrimination...

...Protestants did on occasion discriminate against Roman Catholics - as did Roman Catholics against Protestants...

...It is part of conventional lore that Protestant councils discriminated against Roman Catholics in these areas too...

...Indeed Mr...