Segregation in Northern Ireland is a long-running issue in the political and social history of Northern Ireland. The segregation involves Northern Ireland's two main communities – its nationalist/republican community (mainly nationalist and/or Catholic) and its unionist/loyalist community (who mainly self-identify as unionist and/or Protestant). It is often seen as both a cause and effect of "The Troubles".
A combination of political, religious and social differences plus the threat of intercommunal tensions and violence has led to widespread self-segregation of the two communities. Catholics and Protestants lead largely separate lives in a situation that some have dubbed "self-imposed apartheid". The academic John Whyte argued that "the two factors which do most to divide Protestants as a whole from Catholics as a whole are endogamy and separate education".
Read more about Segregation In Northern Ireland: Historical Background, Education, Employment, Housing, Inter-marriage, Anti-discrimination Legislation
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“For generations, a wide range of shooting in Northern Ireland has provided all sections of the population with a pastime which ... has occupied a great deal of leisure time. Unlike many other countries, the outstanding characteristic of the sport has been that it was not confined to any one class.”
—Northern Irish Tourist Board. quoted in New Statesman (London, Aug. 29, 1969)
“Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever!”
—George C. Wallace (b. 1919)
“‘What is the world, O soldiers?
It is I,
I, this incessant snow,
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—Walter De La Mare (1873–1956)
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—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)