Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
surrounded by districts with much higher proportions of Catholics. This
is likely to be the result of the process of countercultural migration noted
earlier, matched by a movement of young Catholics away from these rural
areas toward the major urban centers both within and beyond Ireland.
In addition, the “high-high” cluster of districts for 2001-2002 includes
districts farther to the east of Ireland than in 1911, where the Catholic
proportion of the Pale has increased over the course of the twentieth cen-
tury. In Northern Ireland a significant cluster of districts with similarly
low percentages of Catholics is present, but it includes fewer districts
than the cluster identified on the 1911 map, reflecting in turn the growth
of the Catholic population within Northern Ireland during the second
half of the twentieth century. Taken together, the maps in this section of
the chapter underscore the dynamism as well as the continuity that has
defined the religious geographies of twentieth-century Ireland.
The Geogr aphy of the Troubles
The conflict in and over Northern Ireland that erupted in 1969 and was to
last for most of the remainder of the century was the starkest manifesta-
tion of the cleavages in political and religious identities to have beset the
island. The cycle of conflict hardened territorial differences as parts of
Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, and other locations became “safe” or “no
go” areas for different groups. Now, as Ireland pulls away from that darker
period, more can be learned about the varied dimensions of violence and
terror and how these touched people's lives. W hile the conflict itself has
received a great deal of academic and media atention, comparatively
less time has been spent on the spatial aspects of the crisis.
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This is all
the more remarkable when we consider how integral geography was to
the Troubles. According to the historian A. T. Q. Stewart, “topography is
the key to the Ulster conflict. Unless you know exactly who lives where,
and why, much of it does not make sense. . . . Ulster's troubles arise from
the fact that people who live there know this information to the square
inch, while strangers know nothing of it.”
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The “Troubled Geographies” project was the first to georeference re-
cords of the more than 3,500 fatalities that occurred in Northern Ireland
as a result of the conflict between 1969 and 2001. The starting point for
