Northern Ireland’s conflict is ethnopolitical, not religious, in nature

Evidence

With regard to our own research program, we carried out two survey studies that allowed us to examine the relationship between social identity complexity and out-group attitudes in Northern Ireland (Schmid, Hewstone, Tausch, Cairns, & Hughes, 2009), a setting in which categorization and identification processes are pivotal to the dynamics of conflict. Although the conflict in Northern Ireland is, broadly speaking, a conflict between those who wish to see Northern Ireland united with the Republic of Ireland (predominantly Catholics) and those who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom (predominantly Protestants; Moxon-Browne, 1991), it is often described as a conflict between the Catholic and Protestant communities. Although there remains extensive segregation between these communities, they are more accurately referred to as ethnopolitical than religious groupings. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 534

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to literature on identity politics and to the reader’s interest in how supposedly religious conflicts are actually structured by ethnic/political cleavages. — connects to: Northern Ireland’s school system remains starkly segregated by religion. — Miles Hewstone and Joanne Hughes, Reconciliation in Northern Ireland: the…, 19