Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
density smoothing, applied to locations of Catholic fatalities at the hands
of loyalist paramilitaries and vice versa to Protestant killings by republi-
can paramilitaries. As its name implies, the technique works to generate
a smooth surface-based representation from a set of point-based records,
where the surface can be represented as values for a grid of cells or, as
here, using isopleth contour lines.
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The amount of smoothing applied
can be varied, but the point is to use the approach to aid more clear iden-
tification of “hot spots.”
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The smoothed surfaces are represented in the
maps in figure 3.8 using the black contour lines. The more “blocky” pat-
terns also shown on these maps portray the 100-by-100-meter grid cells
now used by NISRA in publishing key census variables. The squares hav-
ing Catholics as 75 percent or more of their total enumerated population
according to the 2001 census are shaded in the darker gray, while light
gray is for squares in which Protestants made up 75 percent or more of the
population. Locations of so-called peace lines - barriers erected by the
security services between Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods - are
also shown.
Comparing the two maps in figure 3.8 shows that Catholic fatalities
were greatest in Catholic areas, notably in the New Lodge neighbor-
hood; similarly, Protestant deaths were focused in the almost exclusively
Protestant Shankill area. However, there are also distinctions between
the two distributions, since Protestants appeared to be killed more often
in an area where the boundaries between the two communities were
relatively well defined and where their numbers might have afforded
them greater protection. For the Catholic population, loyalist paramili-
taries tended not to target the Falls heartland as often as the New Lodge,
and this may have been because the interfaces between the Catholic and
Protestant areas of this part of inner-city North Belfast have historically
been less well defined and more contested. On the other hand, the long
peace line in the west of the city between the Falls and the Shankill
districts constricted access to the former from the early 1970s, perhaps
affording the Catholics of the Falls a modest protection that those in the
New Lodge did not enjoy. In contrast, in the New Lodge area it would
have been easier for loyalist paramilitaries to launch atacks and then
escape back to the surrounding Protestant districts.
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