Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
aforementioned districts and also in districts immediately south of the
border. As a whole the proportion of Protestant population in the south
went from about 25 percent in 1911 to less than 8 percent by 1926. 19 his
process continued through 1961 as the south became even more Catholic
dominated. However, by 2001-2002 the trend appears to have changed
again, in fact reversing, as a new patern of non-Catholic setlement be-
gan to become apparent, very much associated with the coastal regions
of the east and west as well as the southern border districts. With the
Republic's “tiger economy” of the mid-1990s and also as a result of Eu-
ropean Union membership, the country went from being a net exporter
to an importer of people. 20 The coastal character of much of this change
in some of the island's most scenic areas perhaps results from counter-
cultural in-migration into these districts, particularly from the more
traditionally Protestant countries of northern Europe. 21 Conversely, the
maps also indicate a consistent patern of relative growth in the Catholic
population in the Greater Belfast area throughout the twentieth century,
such that Catholics and Protestants are living in greater numbers closer
together than before. The population of the Greater Belfast area has
grown significantly, even if the City of Belfast's population has itself de-
clined since its 1911 peak owing to suburbanization, industrial collapse,
and the dangers, real and perceived, of the Troubles. However, further
analysis confirms that the formation of enclaves based on religious and
political identities rather than on widespread residential integration has
remained a feature in this trend.
The last census for which data are available at URD level across all of
Ireland for the three largest religions (Catholic, Church of Ireland, and
Presbyterian) is 1961. The maps in figure 3.3 begin to compare changes
in the distributions of Catholic and Church of Ireland populations from
1911 up to that date. These maps were created using a so-called local indi-
cator technique, namely, a local Moran's I test for assessing whether the
district-level percentages for either religion are spatially autocorrelated.
“Autocorrelation” is the formal term for paterning in values; that is,
values do not simply vary randomly over space. The Moran's I test can be
used to assess both positive and negative spatial autocorrelation (as well
as zero autocorrelation). Positive local Moran's I values indicate cluster-
ing of similar values, whether high or low, while negative values indi-
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