The 2021 Northern Ireland Census marked the first time since records began where the Catholic share of the population was larger than the combined Protestant share. In 2021, over 42 percent of the population classified themselves as Catholic or from a Catholic background, in comparison with 37 percent classified as Protestant or from a Protestant background. Additionally, the share of the population with no religion (or those who did not answer) was 19 percent; larger than any individual Protestant denomination. This marks a significant shift in demographic and societal trends over the past century, as Protestants outnumbered Catholics by roughly 2:1 when Northern Ireland was established in the 1920s. Given the Catholic community's historic tendency to be in favor of a united Ireland, many look to the changing religious composition of the population when assessing the potential for Irish reunification. Religion's historical influence A major development in the history of British rule in ireland was the Plantation of Ulster in the 1600s, where much of the land in the north (historically the most rebellious region) was seized from Irish Catholics and given to Protestant settlers from Britain (predominantly Scots). This helped establish Protestant dominance in the north, created a large section of the population loyal to the British crown, and saw a distinct Ulster-Scots identity develop over time. In the 1920s, the republican movement won independence for 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, however, the six counties in Ulster with the largest Protestant populations remained part of the UK, as Northern Ireland. Following partition, structural inequalities between Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic communities meant that the Protestant population was generally wealthier, better educated, more politically empowered, and had better access to housing, among other advantages. In the 1960s, a civil rights movement then emerged for equal rights and status for both sides of the population, but this quickly turned violent and escalated into a the three-decade long conflict now known as the Troubles.

The Troubles was largely fought between nationalist/republican paramilitaries (mostly Catholic), unionist/loyalist paramilitaries (mostly Protestant), and British security forces (including the police). This is often described as a religious conflict, however it is more accurately described as an ethnic and political conflict, where the Catholic community generally favored Northern Ireland's reunification with the rest of the island, while the Protestant community wished to remain in the UK. Paramilitaries had a large amount of support from their respective communities in the early years of the Troubles, but this waned as the conflict progressed into the 1980s and 1990s. Demographic and societal trends influenced the religious composition of Northern Ireland's population in these decades, as the Catholic community had higher fertility rates than Protestant communities, while the growing secularism has coincided with a decline in those identifying as Protestant - the dip in those identifying as Catholic in the 1970s and 1980s was due to a protest and boycott of the Census. The Troubles came to an end in 1998, and divisions between both sides of the community have drastically fallen, although they have not disappeared completely.

Socio-economic inequalities between Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities in the 1970s were not only reflected in significant differences in unemployment rates, but also in job types. For example, Catholics were more likely to be employed in manual jobs, whereas Protestants were much more likely to have non-manual, so-called "white collar" jobs. This was due to a number of factors, particularly employment discrimination, but also greater access to higher education among Protestants, and a higher concentration of white-collar job opportunities in Protestant areas.

In Northern Ireland in the 1960s, widespread inequalities between the Catholic and Protestant communities led to a civil rights campaign, which later developed into a 30-year conflict known as the Troubles. Although Protestants made up around two-thirds of the north's population, they also had disproportionate control of the government and economy. As a result, the unemployment rate among Catholics was around 2.5 times higher than that of Protestants in the early-70s. As the conflict developed, high unemployment among young Catholic men in particular was a major factor in the growth of Republican paramilitary organizations such as the Irish Republican Army. The Fair Employment Act of 1976 sought to undo this inequality by promoting equal opportunities and prohibiting religious discrimination; however, unemployment grew even higher in the 1980s, with over a third of Catholic men unemployed by 1987.

Political inequality between Catholic and Protestant communities was one of the key social issues in the 1960s in Northern Ireland, and the civil rights campaign that emerged in the pursuit of equal representation would eventually give way to the 30-year conflict that became known as the Troubles. Following Irish independence from Britain in the 1920s, the island of Ireland was partitioned and the six counties of Ireland with the largest Protestant populations remained in the UK as Northern Ireland. At the time of partition, the north's population was roughly two-thirds Protestant, one-third Catholic, which gave political dominance to unionist parties - generally seen as those representing Protestant communities' interests. However, despite the numerical advantage, the political system was rigged to further extend this political advantage. University students and business owners (both groups were overwhelmingly Protestant), were granted a second vote in Stormont (Northern Ireland's parliament) elections. In local elections, only ratepayers (i.e. the heads of households) and their spouses could vote - this excluded many Catholic adults who were living in multi-generational households, which was a symptom of Northern Ireland's housing shortage and inequalities in housing allocation between the two communities. Moreover, this meant that voters who paid rates (NI's council tax) on multiple properties could vote several times, on top of additional votes for business owners and companies, which were more likely to be Protestant. In addition to voting inequalities, districts were gerrymandered in favor of unionist parties. In combination, these factors often proved decisive in swinging elections to give unionist parties victory in Catholic-majority areas.

More than 3,500 people were killed as a result of the Troubles in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1998. Of these, over 1,500 were from Northern Ireland's Catholic community, while just under 1,300 were from the Protestant community. Of the 722 people not from Northern Ireland who were killed in the conflict, over 500 were killed in Northern Ireland, while 120 were killed in Britain, 83 were killed in the Republic of Ireland, and 14 were killed elsewhere in Europe.

The Good Friday Agreement, or the Belfast Agreement, was the culmination of the Northern Ireland peace process that brought about the end of the 30-year conflict known as the Troubles. The peace process itself involved years of negotiations between the leading nationalist parties (generally seen as representing Northern Ireland's Catholic community), unionist parties (generally seen as representing Northern Ireland's Protestant community), representatives of the British, Irish, and U.S. governments, as well as paramilitary organizations. Terms of the Good Friday Agreement The Agreement involved a series of proposals touching aspects such as demilitarization, identity, devolution, and cross-community cooperation. The Agreement laid the framework for the Northern Ireland government to be reinstated after a 25-year absence, with mechanisms in place to ensure power-sharing and fair representation between Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities. It also reaffirmed Northern Ireland's position as an equal part of the United Kingdom, but stipulated that the people of Northern Ireland may change this through a referendum (generally assumed to mean reunification with the Republic of Ireland), while it also extended British and Irish citizenship to anybody born in the north. In terms of demilitarization and ending the violence, the Agreement stipulated that all complying paramilitary groups were to disarm and cease operations, and it ensured the British Army presence in Northern Ireland would be significantly reduced. To many, the most controversial aspect of the Agreement was the early release of convicted paramilitary personnel from organization who signed the Agreement, regardless of the charge or length of their remaining sentence - for this reason, the hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) did not support the Agreement. The referendum The Good Friday Agreement was signed by the respective parties on April 10, 1998 (albeit, without the support from the DUP and some smaller paramilitary groups), and was then put to the public on both sides of the Irish border in referenda on May 22, 1998. The vote passed easily on both sides, with ** percent support in the north, and ** percent in the south. In Northern Ireland, the background of voters was not recorded, and therefore there is no official breakdown of the vote by religious background, yet, the most widely accepted estimates suggest that support in Catholic communities may have been as high as ** percent, while support in Protestant communities was roughly ** percent - again, largely in opposition to the early release of paramilitary prisoners.

Long-standing tensions between Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland have led to high levels of segregation. This article explores the spaces within which residents of north Belfast move within everyday life and the extent to which these are influenced by segregation. We focus in particular on the role that interconnecting tertiary streets have on patterns of mobility. We adapt Grannis’s (1998) concept to define T-communities from sets of interconnecting tertiary streets within north Belfast. These are combined with more than 6,000 Global Positioning System (GPS) tracks collected from local residents to assess the amount of time spent within different spaces. Spaces are divided into areas of residents’ own community affiliations (in-group), areas not clearly associated with either community (mixed), or areas of opposing community affiliation (out-group). We further differentiate space as being either within a T-community or along a section of main road. Our work extends research on T-communities by expanding their role beyond exploring residential preference, to explore, instead, networks of (dis)connection through which social divisions are expressed via everyday mobility practices. We conclude that residents are significantly less likely to move within mixed and out-group areas and that this is especially true within T-communities. It is also evident that residents are more likely to travel along out-group sections of a main road if they are in a vehicle and that women show no greater likelihood than men to move within out-group space. Evidence from GPS tracks also provides insights into some areas where mixing appears to occur. Key Words: GIS, Northern Ireland, postconflict, segregation, T-communities.

Research on the contact hypothesis has traditionally prioritized the role of positive, direct, face-to-face interactions in shaping intergroup prejudices, but it has recently expanded to study indirect vicarious, negative, and online contact experiences. In the majority of studies though, there has been little direct comparison of the relationship between these different forms of contact and prejudice. The present research set out to compare the amount and effects of negative, online, and vicarious contact in the context of positive, face-to-face and direct contact in two studies. Study 1 comprised a national cross-sectional survey of relations between White and Black UK residents (n = 1014), and Study 2 comprised a national longitudinal survey of relations between Catholic and Protestant residents of Northern Ireland (n = 1030). The results of both studies indicated that positive face-to-face contact occurred more frequently and had a comparatively stronger relationship with prejudice than other forms of contact. However, they also indicated the effects of online, negative and vicarious forms of contact existed independently of those of direct, positive face-to-face contact. Moreover, online negative contact generally had a stronger relationship to prejudice than negative contact experienced face-to-face. Exploratory mediation analyses suggested the affective pathways from contact to prejudice may vary for different forms of contact.

The project’s main aim is to analyse how women are metaphorically portrayed in the mural of Northern Ireland. The event selected for the analysis is the conflict of Northern Ireland in which women had a passive and active role. A sample of 42 Catholic murals and 20 Protestant murals, was collected and analysed.

The report is a compendium of indicators on community relations and includes statistics on hate crimes; attitudinal data on Protestant/Catholic relations; parades statistics and levels of prejudice towards ethnic minorities. The indicators demonstrate the state of good relations in Northern Ireland and monitor progress over time. Source agency: Office of the First and Deputy First Minister Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Good Relations Indicators

This interview is part of the Women, Risk and Aids Project (1989-90) archive which was created as part of the Reanimating Data Project (2018-20).Original transcript of an interview with Lisa, who had moved from Belfast to Manchester. She has had a religious, Catholic (Protestant) upbringing, and her dad is a minister. Lisa had a good, open relationship with her dad, but struggles to connect with her mum. She enjoys her church community, and though she holds Catholic views she has quite a liberal attitude towards her religion, especially regarding sexuality and marriage, though she can find her religion restrictive at times. She was sexually abused by an uncle when she was younger, which has impacted her views and confidence around her sexuality and she feels some shame around, but she is currently in a very supportive and understanding relationship. Lisa had had sexual intercourse with her current partner and they now use condoms, but had been too embarrassed to purchase them in the early stages of their sexual relationship.She does not want to take the pill, as she is worried about the effect it may have on her moods and health. There was lots of pressure at school to not be a virgin, but Lisa feels she gained respect, especially from her male peers, for upholding her religious values around virginity. Female sexual pleasure was acknowledged among her peers, but not understood in practice - it was not part of their sex education curriculum, and she learnt about pleasure through her current partner, who had been told my his father. She did not have any sex education while in Northern Ireland, but has had what she believes is good sex education at her secondary school in Manchester, covering pregnancy, conception and contraception - her (male) teacher was a bit nervous, but was happy to answer and questions students may have had. AIDS was not covered in her formal sex education, and she learnt about it through friends and public health campaigns in the media. She feels fairly informed about AIDS transmission, and thinks it is important for young people to learn about the risks and would still like more, consistent information. She feels that those who are at highest risks of contracting AIDS are 'People like prostitutes or people like that and people who sleep around a lot and don't use condoms'.

This dataset comprises the results of a survey of a cross section of the Northern Ireland population. Respondents were asked questions on a range of political attitudes and behaviour. The survey was conducted directly after the Northern Ireland Assembly Election 2016 and asks the following: full voting information as gathered via a mock ballot paper, full set of demographic questions including social class, religion, education, gender and suchlike, battery of political attitude questions on ethnonational, economic and moral themes, question on voting behaviour in the EU referendum, questions on political accountability, ethnic representation, candidate traits and other politically relevant questions.

Background information on the Power-Sharing and Voting: Conflict, Accountability and Electoral Behaviour at the 2015 Northern Ireland Assembly Election project:
When citizens in Northern Ireland cast their vote in the 2015 Northern Ireland Assembly election, almost two decades had passed since the Good Friday/ Belfast Agreement of 1998 established devolution and power-sharing. Thus, a rigorous analysis of the 2015 Assembly election allows careful consideration of the impact of the 'peace process' and the associated implementation of power-sharing governing structures.

The project investigates whether power-sharing has actually led to good quality electoral democracy for the people of Northern Ireland or has instead merely cemented and strengthened ethnic divisions. In the investigation, a number of specific questions are addressed.

• 1) Have the power-sharing institutions maintained or reduced the importance of ethno-national (Protestant British versus Catholic Irish) campaigning and voting at election time? The study compares the strength of ethno-national voting over the 1998-2015 period by linking the 2015 study to earlier ESRC funded studies in 1998 and 2003. The project assesses whether there has been an increase over time in 'cross bloc' voting (Protestants giving lower preference votes to nationalist parties, or Catholics giving lower preference votes to unionist parties). Also, it assesses whether the importance of ethno-national ideology (voting on the basis of nationalist versus unionist beliefs) has become more or less important over time. Furthermore, it compares ethno-national ideology to non-conflict ideologies (such as economic left-right views or moral liberal-conservative views).
• 2) Is electoral accountability possible? If there is only one party in government, it is easy for voters to identify who to hold responsible for government performance. In coalition governments it is harder for voters to clearly see which party to blame if things are going badly (or reward if things are going well). This difficulty is particularly acute when all of the parties are in Government and none are in Opposition, as is the case in Northern Ireland. We assess whether it is actually possible for voters to hold decision-makers to account in such a context.
• 3) Is there an emotional basis to voting? Following on from questions 1 and 2 the project assesses the conditions under which voters rely on either ethno-national voting or peformance-based voting. It investigates the role of emotions and assess whether anger is associated with voting on the basis of the ethno-national conflict while fear is associated with performance-based voting.
• 4) Does power-sharing discourage participation? Does the absence of a clear Opposition lead to reluctance to engage in politics? Also, does the sense that powersharing benefits one community over the other lead to alienation from politics, or non-electoral forms of political protest?
• 5) What are Northern Ireland citizens' attitudes to political reform (such as developing a strong Opposition that would hold the Government to account, or the regulation of sensitive cultural matters such as flag flying and parades)? How do citizens form such attitudes? Why is it that disagreement with suggested reform can spiral into violent street protest?

Answering these questions is important for understanding how democracy operates in the sensitive setting of Northern Ireland. The answers are also important for broader understanding of how to respond to violent ethnic conflict around the world. The 'Northern Ireland Model' is often held up as an impressive example of successful power-sharing and peace building. This analysis will provide a detailed critique of the quality of electoral democracy in the Northern Ireland example that will be important for peace builders around the world (including organisations such as the United Nations). The project will also maximise the relevance of the work for ordinary citizens in Northern Ireland, second level school teachers and students, Northern Ireland newspapers, documentary makers, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Information about further research by the same team is available on the Queen's University Belfast Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study 2016 webpages.

For the latter part of the 20th century, Northern Ireland, officially part of the United Kingdom but sharing an island with the Republic of Ireland, saw violence between the nationalists (mostly Roman Catholic background) and unionists (mostly Protestant background). The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 sought to end this conflict, by establishing peace between these two communities and guiding how Northern Ireland should be governed. But even 20 years on, Northern Ireland remains divided. Yet, hope is on the horizon. Young students in Lurgan—a town of 25,000 south of Belfast—are using Survey123 for ArcGIS to record data across sectarian lines. After analyzing the data collected, the students from conflicting backgrounds find that they aren't that different after all. This is how change begins. Join the students of Lurgan to learn how youth are using GIS to make a difference in their community.

During the Troubles, the British government introduced a policy of internment in Northern Ireland, whereby authorities had the power to arrest and detain without trial individuals believed to be associated with paramilitary organizations. Between August 9. 1971 and December 5. 1975, almost 2,000 people were interned by the police and British Army. Around 95 percent of these were from a Catholic background, while the first Protestant internees were not arrested until 1973. Internment was introduced in an attempt to weaken the IRA and other nationalist paramilitary groups, however it had the opposite effect. Mismanagement and outdated information saw hundreds of unaffiliated people interned, some of those interned suffered police brutality and were coerced into confessions, and several anti-internment protests turned into some of the bloodiest days of the Troubles. These factors combined to bolster support for Catholic paramilitaries, who gradually transitioned from using defensive to offensive tactics in the early 1970s, and these groups would go on to be responsible for the largest number of combined deaths during the Troubles.

British Army troops were sent to Northern Ireland in 1969 in order to de-escalate tensions between the dominant Protestant and minority Catholic communities during the civil rights movement. Operation Banner, as it came to be known, then lasted until 2007, making it the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The army was initially welcomed by Catholic communities, who felt they would offer protection from what they viewed as a corrupt and sectarian police service, however this quickly changed after a series of interactions between the army and Catholic community turned violent. The army would then become the primary target of republican (predominantly Catholic) paramilitaries throughout the Troubles, and around 750 of those killed in the conflict were from the British Armed Forces (including the UDR). The Ulster Defence Regiment The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was also established in 1970 in an attempt to relieve the police (the RUC) of any militaristic duties, and to replace the Ulster Special Constabulary (also known as the B Specials), who were not trusted by the wider Catholic community. During the Troubles, regular army forces were mostly made up of soldiers from mainland Britain, while the UDR drew from the local population - originally intended to represent local demographics in terms of religious representation, the UDR was almost entirely made up of Protestants within a few years.