Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
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Troubled Geographies: A Historical
GIS of Religion, Society, and Conflict
in Ireland since the Great Famine
Niall Cunningham
Throughout the development of modern Ireland religion
has played a central role in the persistence of complex communal identi-
ties.
1
Notwithstanding what has been considered to be the substantive
resolution of “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland, religious identity has
continued to signiicantly inluence atitudes and behavior.
2
However,
this is not to be reductive: the divisions between Catholics and Protes-
tants have not been representative of substantive theological conflict;
instead, they have reflected the political chasm between nationalists,
the overwhelming majority of whom are Catholic, and Protestants, who
have always made up the vast majority of the unionist political bloc that
seeks to maintain the constitutional link with the rest of the United King-
dom. Many scholars have set out to appraise these complexities and their
outcomes, but few have explored them through an overtly geographical
framing to understand how the conflict that has so dogged Northern
Ireland in contemporary decades relates to longer-term (re)configura-
tions of identities right across the island. In that context, this chapter
will provide some insights into “Troubled Geographies: Two Centuries
of Religious Division in Ireland,” a major project funded by the UK's
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) that has gone some way
in addressing this lacuna.
Background
For historical reasons, primarily the legacy of the partial and inconsis-
tent nature of successive atempts to systematically colonize Ireland
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