Catholic Grievances, Catholic Nationalism: A Comment Author(s): Denis O'Hearn Source: The British Journal of Sociology, Vol.

34, No. 3 (Sep., 1983), pp. 438-445 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The London School of Economics and Political Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/590257 . Accessed: 24/08/2011 17:18
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Denis O'Hearn

Catholicgrievances, Catholicnationalism: a comment

SUMMARY

In a previous articlein the BritzshJournal of Sociology Christopher Hewitt attempted to show that discrimination againstCatholics in the North of Irelandhas been overstated.By using Hewitt's election data (1967), but weightinglocal councils by population, the present article shows that underrepresentation Catholics of in local councils was 12.1 per cent, instead of Hewitt's 5.6 per cent. Furthermore, Unionists concentratedtheir gerrymandering on largecouncil districts,and allowednon-Unionists administer to very small districts.Typically,Catholicsmadeup over 62 per cent of the populationin Derry City, but held only 40 per cent of the council seats. It is also shown that discriminationin housing cannot be measuredsimply by the percentageof Catholics in council housing as opposed to Protestants.This is because (1) more Protestantsown their home and (2) overcrowding among Catholics is much greater.Finally, evidence is given on discrimination in employment. Richard Rose's 'Loyalty Survey' is criticized because its occupationalcategorieswere too broadi.e., 'manualworkingclass'. WhenRose'scategoryis brokendown into 'skilled','semi-skilled', 'unskilled' and manualworkersthereis a definitedifferencein occupational statusin favourof Protestants. Christopher Hewitt'sarticle on the North of Ireland(BritishJournal of Sociology vol. 32, no. 3, September 1981) is an unfortunate exampleof a well-researched article,with all of the research seemingly aimed to 'prove'an unsoundproposition.Hewitthopes to show that there is not 'a serious or systematic bias againstCatholics'in the six counties. He fails to succeed becauseof the superf1ciality his of mainly statisticalargument.The result is an articlemost reminiscent of those by Americanacademicswho wanted to 'prove' that discrimination againstblackswas a myth.
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of To highlightthe weaknesses Hewitt'sexposition,I shallproceed from his own statisticsand majorpoints. Theseare: (a) gerrymanderin ing in local councils, (b) discrimination housing,and (c) discnmination in employment.
(a) GERRYMANDERING

against Hewitt's argumentthat there is not consistentdiscrimination on Catholics in the North of Irelalldconcentratesoverwhelmingly This is becausemost analystshave emphasizedthe gerrymandering. housing,jobs, etc. (at least in role of local governments distributing until the 'reforms'of the 1970s).l If loyalistscontrollocal councils, policies. Whileother they also control a rangeof social-distributive important (e.g., hiring factors not emphasizedby Hewitt are also policies of large firms and state bodies), he is correct to identify local democracyas significant. centerson his TableI (p. 366),2 which Most of Hewitt's argument a percentageof adult populationand (2) compares(1) Catholicsas in councillors, a seriesof local councils. of the percentage non-unionist due to fertility differencesbetween Catholics His first point is that and Protestants'the comparisonbetween Catholicsas a percentage of the total population and the percentageof Catholiccouncillors, which is usually used to show electoral injustice is obviously misleading'(p. 365). Thispoint wouldbe well takenif indeed,as claimed, 'the proportionof Catholicsin the voting age is noticeably lower.' difference However,by Hewitt's own TableI we see that the average between Catholics as a percentage of total population and as a percentage of adult population is less than 3.3 per cent. This is perhaps 'noticeably' lower, but little more. Indeed, many experts believe that between 1961 (the census year) and 1967 (Hewitt's election year) the Catholic proportionof the NorthernIrishpopulation increased due to fertility rates and lower emigrationrates, cancellingat least part of the 3.3 percent differencementionedabove. But Hewitt's argumenthinges primarilyon his contention that of the 'average underrepresentation' Catholics in local councils where they constitute a majority of voters is 'only 5.6 per cent.' in Furthermore,he shows that 'while underrepresented 15 areas in Catholicsare overrepresented nine', and that 'only in seven cases of did the underrepresentation the Catholicpopulation lead to an undemocraticoutcome in which Unionists controlled the council' (p. 365). This constitutes a glaringexample of the misleadinguse of statistics. The statistics are misleadingbecause Hewitt gives equal weight in his calculationsto Keady Council (pop. 1,637) and Derry City Council (pop. 54,762). To correct for population weights, I have

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Denzs O'Hearn

reproduced Hewitt's Table I, with the local councils ranked by population and with the additionalcolumns 'total population'and 'Catholicgain/loss' (see Table I). A minus sign appearsin the gain/ is loss column if Catholic underrepresentation more than 10 per cent. The minus sign is circled lf the Unionistsgainedcontrol of a Catholic-majority council. A plus sign appearswhere Catholicsare overrepresented 10 per cent or more. by
TABLE I

in Local council control and gerrymandering all 'Catholic' areas

Catholics as a % of adult population % of non-Unionist councillors Total population Catholic gain/loss
9 e 6 @ e

Rankby pop. 1 Dery

2 Magherafelt R.D. 3 Omagh R.D. 4 NewTyNo. 2 R.D.

5 Lisnaskea R.D. 6 Cookstown R.D. 7 NewuyNo. 1 R.D. 8 Kflkeel R.D.

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

NewTy Armagh Omagh Strabane Downpatrick Warrenpoint Ballycastle Keady

61.9 51.2 57.0 70.1 56.8 52.6 56.4 58.1 81.1 52.9 57.2 76.3 68.8 68.9 56.5 79.5

40.0 28.6 42.9 72.4 38.2 36.8 58.8 75.0 66.6 40.0 42.9 75.0 91.7 75.0 83.3 100.0

53,762 32,049 30,216 25,550 17,115 14,680 13,441 13,140 12,429 10.062 8,109 7,783 4,235 3,245 2,642 1,637

+ (g ) + +
+

I contend that loyalists would concentratetheir gerrymandering R.D. and Omagh efforts on largecouncils such as Derry,Magherafelt R.D. They wouldnot, however,put a largeeffort into gainingcontrol Warrenpoint of small nationalistdistrictssuch as Keady,Ballycastle, in andDownpatrick (justas, in America,white supremacists Mississipi were willingto throw a town such as Fayette to the blacks,so as to retaincontrolof the white 'system'as a whole). This is preciselywhat the table shows. In all largedistrictsexcept Newry No. 2 Unionists gained control of the councils by gerrymandering.Of the sixteen councils in Table I, the seven in which the Unionistsgainedcontrol are rankedby population 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10 and 11. The four councils with a plus, signifyinglargeCatholic gains, ranked 16, 15, 13 and 8 in population. In other terms, the councilwas 22,303 mean populationof a Catholic-underrepresented council while the mean population of a Catholic-overrepresented was only 5,4\14. If the councils are weighted by population, we find that the of average underrepresentation adult Catholics is not the 5.6 per

a Catholicnationalism: comment Catholicgrievances,

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cent arrivedat by Hewitt, but the much higher figureof 12.1 per cent. Finally,if we are to exploreseriouslythe questionof gerrymandering we must go beyond generalstatisticsto the analysisof particular cases. The most important case study is Derry City, the largest Northern Irish council with a Catholic majority. In Derry the Councilwas dividedinto threewards,as follows:
TABLE II

in Gerrymandering Derry City

Catholic voters Protestant voters 1,138 3,946 3,697 8,781 Total 11,185 6,476 5,549 23,210

South Ward Nori Ward Waterside Ward Total Source:CameronReport,p.59.

10,047 2,530 1,852 14,429

By this system Unionists returned 8 councillorsin the North Ward and 4 councillors in the WatersideWard, for a total of twelve councillors. Nationalists (non-Unionists)returned only the eight councillors from the South Ward,which was bloated out of all proportionin termsof Catholicvotersas well as total voters. We can only conclude, despite Hewitt's objections to the conwas indeed a consistent policy in those trary, that gerrymandenng large constituencies that were considered 'political plums' by the loyalist rulingclass.
(b) HOUSING

by Hewitt finds that 'discnmination Protestantcouncils'in housing to in was 'insignificant its impact and that the greatestbias appeared by lie in the treatmentof Protestants Catholiccouncils'(p. 367). His sole evidence for this claim is Richard Rose's 'Loyalty Survey',3 which shows that a slightly greaterpercentageof Catholics (25.9) (20.6) livedin councilhousesin 1968 than Protestants However,Hewitt'sgeneralstatisticalevidenceis refutedby a more thorough investigation.First of all, more Protestants(45 per cent) than Catholics (37 per cent) owned their house, accordingto the Loyalty Survey.4 Therefore, Catholics were in greater need of council housing than were Protestants.We would find, in the same way, that in the USA a greaterpercentageof blacks are located in housing thall are whites. But this by itself govemment-subsidized in does not refute the fact of discrimination housing. Further, while more Catholics than Protestantslive in council

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Denzs O'Hearn

housing, a smaller percentage of Catholic families are allocated council housing. This is because of overcrowding Catholicareas. in A study calTiedout in 1973 for the NorthernIrelandCommunity Relations Commissionidentifies twelve areas in Belfast which are 'black spots' in relationto overcrowding.5 of these are Catholic All areas. Moreover,the Cameron Report,a 1969 Bntish government report, went beyond the statistics to investigateparticularproblem areas of discrimination housing.The CameronCommissionfound that in in 'Unionist-controlledareas it was fairly frequent for housing policy to be operatedso that houses allocatedto Catholicstended, as in DungannonUrban District, to go to rehouse slum dwellers, whereas Protestant allocations tended to go more frequently to new families.'6 Finally, it is probably true that non-Unionistcouncils discriminated in housing as did Unionist councils. But the plain fact is that, partly due to gerrymandering, only 11 of 73 local councils were controlledby anti-Unionists 1968, representing population in a of only 96,500 out of a total populationof 1,425,042. Thus,even if discrimination councils were equal, the brunt of it would fall on by the Catholicpopulation.
(c) EMPLOYMENT

Perhaps the most decisive factor determiningone's standard of living is the possibility of employment. The impact of unemployment is reducedin a welfarestate such as Britain(andin the Britishadministered North of Ireland), but even so discriminationin employmentis probablythe most importantform of discrimination. Therefore, it is unfortunate that Hewitt admits higher Catholic unemployment, but then dismisses its importanceby giving the subjecta mere threesentences. In fact, there is overwhelmingevidence from the 1971 census that discrimination employmentwas the normal state of affairs in du*ng the period under review. The census shows unemployment among Catholics to be two and one half times the rate among Protestants. In comparison, ie rate of unemployment among blacks in the USA is twice that of whites.7 Furthermore, Catholics are employed in very low numbersin modernmanufacturing sectors, the most importantlocation of employment,and are concentrated in manualunskilled jobs (see TableIII). The figuresin Table III refute Hewitt'scontention that Catholics do not differ from Protestants in occupational status. Hewitt's Table III (p. 369), which purportsto show that occupational differences between Catholics and Protestantsin the North of Ireland

a gnevances,Catholicnationalism: comment Catholic

TABLE III

443

Employmentof Catholicsin selectedsectors/jobs

Catholics as No of employees Caffiolics as % of employees Publicans Building Labourer Dock Labourer Bricklayer Plasterer Waiter, Waitress Hairdresser Domestic Housekeeper 73 55 54 51 51 50 49 48

Manufacturing Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company Secretaries Engineers Chemists/Biolozts Production Managers Scnior Government Officials Draughtsmen Gas, Water and Electricity Insurance, Banking, Finance, Business Services Public Administration and Defense

23.2 4.8 7.0 1 1.0 11.0 12.0 1 3.0 1 3.0 1 5.4

1 6.2 19.6

Sources: Fair Employmcnt Agency for Northern Ircland, An Industrial and Occupational Profile of the Two Sections of the Population in Northern Ireland, Bclfast, FEA, January 1978; E.A. Aunger, Social Fragrnentahon and Polihical Stability: A Comparative Shxdy of New Brunswick and Northern Ireland, Doctoral Disscrtation, Univcrsity of California, Irvine, 1978.

do not comparewith blacks and whites in the USA, suffers from two majorproblems. First, the category 'manualworkingclass', used by Hewitt, is too broad. According to a report preparedby the Fair Employment Agency for Northern Ireland, the 1971 census revealsthat 'while the median Protestant is a skilled manual worker, the median Catholic is a semi-skilledmanual worker.' Further, ie median Protestantmale is a skilledmanualworkerwhile the medianCatholic maleis an unskilledmanualworker.8 Second, many Catholics are skilled workers,and most of them are well educated.But they are also unemployedor underemployed. While they might go down in Rose's Loyalty Survey as skilled or even professional,they are actuallyin unskilledjobs or unemployed in due to discrimination employment. A more realistic picture is presentedby E.A. Aunger'sanalysis of the 1971 census. Using census data, he discriminatesamong skilled manual, semi-skilledmanualand unskilled manualworkers. His most importantfindingis thatwhileonly 16 percent of Protestant males are unskilled manual workers, 32 per cent of Catholicsfall into that category.9 This is quite comparableto the figures for in black/whitediscrimination the USA.

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Dents O'Hearn

by are But even more illuminating accountsof hiringpractices the largest Northern Irish employers. In 1970 there were only 400 Catholicsamong the 10,000 workersin the province'ssinglelargest only a Catholicsnumbered employer,the Harland& Wolff shipyard. handful in the workforces of the two major factories located in Works. Catholicareasof Belfast-Mackie's and SiroccoEngineering Almost all of the new multinationalfirms which moved into the North of Irelandduringthe post-warera were situatedin Protestant areas,and thereforeemployedfew Catholics. Finally, Frank Gallagherprovided evidence on employment by local councils in 1951,1 which is summarizedin Table IV. The Cameron Report finds that the situation did not change between 138 1951 and 1969. Paragraph ofthe report shows thatin October clericaland technical 1968 only 30 per cent of Derry'sadministrative, employeeswere Catholics.Only one of the ten best payingjobs was was a held by a Catholic. None of these employees irl Dungannon Catholic, although the council is 50.3 per cent Catholic.No senior council posts in County Fermanagh(55.4 per cent Catholic) were held by Catholics.The CameronReport itself refutesHewitt'sclaim than are Unionist councils are more discriminative that Catholic-run councils: 'Protestantswho are the minority in the Newry area,by contrast to the other areaswe have specified,do not have a serious unemployment problem, and in Newry there are relatively few Protestants, whereasin the other towns Catholicsmake up a substantialpartof the population.'ll
TABLE IV

Employmentin local councils,1951

No. of nonmanual government employees Number of Catholics 19 16 16 56 5 18 130 Catholics as % Catholics as % of population of employees 7.8 12.5 7.8 19.0 9.4 11.5 11.9 22.0 46.5 43.0 30.0 55.4 55.3 34.0

Antritn Armagh Derry Down Fermanagh Tyrone Totals

257 129 206 294 53 156 1,095

CONCLUSION

Hewitt to be I have shown the evidence presentedby Christopher misleading. Behind his statistics lies the basic fact that in 1968 was againstCatholics the Northof Ireland systematic in discrimination jobs Whilethe few Catholicsin a position to dispense and pervasive. in or houses tended to discriminate favourof other Catholics,there

comment Catholicgnevances,Catholicnationalism:-a

445

were very few Catholicsin such positions. Newryis an isolatedcase, while Derry City is followed by other cities alld counties which againstCatholics. practiceddiscrimination
Denis O'Hearn

NOTES

1. See, e.g. John Darby, Conflict in Northern Ireland: The Development of a Polarssed Community, Dublin, Gill and MacMillan, 1976; Michael Farrell,Northern Ireland: The Orange State, London, Pluto, 1976; and Liam de Paor, L)ivided Ulster, Harmondsworth,Penguin,1970. 2. Page references to Hewitt's article are in parenthesesin the text. 3. Richard Rose, Governing Without Consensus: An Irish Perspective, London, Faber& Faber, 1971. 4. Ibid.,pp.503-4 5. F.W. Boal, P. Doherty, D.G. Pnngle, Social Problemsin the Belfast Area: An Explanatory Analysis, Occasional Papers no. 12, Department of Geography, Queen Mary College, University of London, pp. 18, 20. 'Black spots' are defined as areas with more than 0.94 personsper room. 6. Disturbances in Northern Ireland: Report of the Cameron Commission, Cmd. 5 32, Belfast, HMSO, 1969, p. 61.

7. US Department of Labor,Manpower Report of the President,various years. See also Michael Reich, 'The Economicsof Racism',in D.M.Gordon (ed.), Problems in Political Economy: An UrbanPerspective,Lexington,Ky., D.C. Heath, 1970. 8. Fair Employment Agency for Northern Ireland, An Industrial and Occupational Profile of the Two Sections of the Population in Northern Ireland, Belfast, FEA, January 1978, p. 12. 9. E.A. Aunger, Social Fragmentation and Political Stability: A Comparative Study of New Brunswick and Northern Ireland, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Califomia, Ilvine, 1978, p. 156. 10. Frank Gallagher, The Indivisible Island: The IIistory of Partstion in Ireland, London, Gollancz, 195 7, pp. 209-10. 11. CameronReport, p. 60.