Northern Ireland

1 Pages 259 Words

Question 1.

Q - Study source A
What can you learn from Source A about the disadvatages faced by Catholics in Northern Ireland in the early 1960’s?

Source A was written in 1961 by the Sunday Times. The Sunday Times is a British newspaper which inferes maybe prejudice in the article. From source A we can learn that catholics suspected a lot of prejudice, this was usually in the higher ranked jobs. Catholics found they couldn't do anything about it as it was too hard to prove. This was a disadvantage as it meant catholics were not being treated respectfully in businesses. In Belfast (the source shows) that out of 10,000 workers in a shipyard, which is a large business, only 400 were catholics although Belfast is a protestant majority which inferes that this may be justified.
The source also conveys that in Fermanagh, which is near the south border of Northern Ireland. This shows that prejudice against Catholics was happening not just in certain cities/towns but everywhere. The statistics in Source A show this. "In Femanagh, the council employed 370 people: 322 of the posts, including the top ones, were filled by Protestants. This was a disadvantage as Fermanagh was of a Catholic majority so it would of been unusual for protestants to have more jobs. Moreover this shows that even in cities/towns with a Catholic majority protestants were still getting more jobs. This shows that the prejudice in Northern Ireland against the Catholics was widespread....