Causes Of Conflict In Northern Ireland

Submitted By suhaibhassoun
Words: 325
Pages: 2

In Northern Ireland, there was divided loyalties and both the Catholics and the Protestants desired different things and had different religious beliefs. Both the Catholics and Protestants gave allegiance to different countries and had different point of views. The Protestants and the catholics were intolerant of one another. The Protestants who saw themselves as British, wanted to continue to be part of United Kingdom, and did not want a union with Republic of Ireland as they fear that the Catholic government would not tolerate them and their beliefs. Most Protestants also saw themselves as British and thus were against the union. However in contrast, Catholics want Northern Ireland to reunite with republic of Ireland. They saw themselves as Irish and thus wanted the reunion. Their loyalty to different countries and their difference in political beliefs have caused the Protestants and the Catholics to be intolerant of each other and thus found it difficult to get along with each other and thus creating a conflict between both religions. The second factor which contributed to the armed conflict was the unequal allocation of housing to the Catholics in Northern Ireland. Since Northern Ireland was mainly populated by the Protestants, little housing opportunities were given to the Catholics causing uneven allocation of housing and shortage of homes for the Catholics. In the country, subsidized public housing was usually allocated to Protestants first although a Catholic family