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nitions of individual members in the formation of a group identity that
excludes others based on the unique value system of the group. Conflicts that often
occur are the result of "peoples' desire that their group be positively valued and
distinct from other groups."8 S.I.T. also explains the importance of
"telling," in which the question "'What is he/she?' (i.e. Are you Green or
are you Orange?) dominates encounters between strangers."9 Group
identity thus assumes great importance because, as results suggest, "some children in
Northern Ireland are capable of making ethnic discriminations based on first names by the
age of seven years, while most children do not achieve this skill until age 11 or
older."10 The point here is that children in Northern Ireland learn
to distinguish their group and its members from out-groups at young ages in order to
establish a positive image of their group. In doing so, children begin to slide down
the spiral of the politics of hate.
The Division of Northern Ireland into Two
Distinct Political Interest Groups: Catholic/Nationalists and Protestant/Unionists
The political affiliation of Protestants
and Catholics in Northern Ireland is divided into two groups, Unionist and Nationalist,
both of whom "claim the same piece of soil (i.e. Northern Ireland) as their
own."11 Whether a person belongs to either group is determined by the
heritage of the family into which they are born and are socialized. According to S.I.T., a
family's group affiliation determines the political bias of the child that is learned at a
young age and is reinforced by the high level of community polarization. In either
case, the family has a political ideology that is directly linked to its heritage of
Irishness or Englishness and hence, the corresponding religious group. The result
is that out of the 1.5 million people in Northern Ireland, "one million are of
Scottish or English descent. They are mainly of the Protestant religion and regard
themselves as 'British,' and, in political terms, they are 'Unionists', signifying their
attachment to the Union with Britain."12 The remaining "half a
million people in Northern Ireland are of Irish lineage and maintain close cultural and
religious links with the rest of the island's three million population. They tend to
adhere to the Catholic religion, and aspire to a United Ireland. In political terms
they are 'Nationalists' or 'Republicans'."13
There is a direct correlation between religion and political ideology; however, political,
and not religious doctrines, have protracted the conflict. This is because while
religious affiliation is used to distinguish group membership, it does not adequately
explain the under
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lying reasons for the creation and the persistence of in-groups and
out-groups. S.I.T. suggests that this is done in order to determine: first, whether a
person is a member of the oppressed or oppressor class and second, whether or not that
person will be discriminated against. Catholics discriminate against Protestants
because of past injustices, and Protestants discriminate against Catholics to maintain
their position of dominance. Unfortunately, as S.I.T. also explains, this practice is learned
by children at young ages, from family and community members and eventually translates
into a hatred of their rival group.
To explain why a conflict has developed between these two groups, it is necessary to
examine the inherent political differences in their definitions of self.
Unionists regard themselves as custodians
of an idealized vision of the 'British way of life' and British liberty, symbolized by the
Crown and the Union between Britain and Northern Ireland, which they see as protecting
them against destruction by an alien Catholic Irish state.14
Protestants in Northern Ireland see
themselves maintaining the union between the North and Britain. They want to
maintain this union because they fear becoming the minority in an independent Irish State,
thereby losing their dominant position, both politically and economically.
Protestants also fear Catholic retribution following unification because of their past
discriminatory practices. Additionally, "Ulster Unionists argue that they are British
rather than Irish, and that they therefore constitute part of a second nation in
Ireland."15
Irish Nationalists argue that everyone in
Ireland, including northern Protestants, belong to a single Irish nation and that a
minority of this nation (i.e. Ulster Unionists) do not have a right to secede from the
rest of the Irish nation.16
Unlike the Unionists, Irish
Nationalists believe that by virtue of one's birth on the Emerald Isle, one automatically
becomes Irish, regardless of religious or political affiliation. Furthermore,
Nationalists want unification of the North with the South. An example of Catholic
political resistance in Northern Ireland can be seen in their refusal to participate in
the governance of the Stormont Parliament, which was created in 1920, following partition.
Catholics did this in order to withhold legitimacy from both the partition and the
governance of Northern Ireland by the British. However, in the years following the
creation of the Stormont Parliament, Catholics reversed their position and
 
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