Northern Ireland and Beyond

The GeoJournal Library

Volume 33

Series Editor: Wolf Tietze, Helmstedt, Germany

Editorial Board: Paul Claval, France R. G. Crane, U.S.A. Yehuda Gradus, Israel Risto Laulajainen, Sweden Gerd Luttig, Germany Walther Manshard, Germany Osamu Nishikawa, Japan Peter Tyson, South Africa

The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.

Northern Ireland and Beyond Social and Geographical Issues

by

EMILIO BIAGINI Department of Economic and Social Research, University of Cagliari, Italy

SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Biagini. Emi 1 io. Northern Ireland and beyond I Emilio Biagini.

p. cm. -- (GeoJournal library ; v. 33) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-90-481-4704-5 ISBN 978-94-017-2456-2 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-2456-2

1. Northern Ireland--Historical geography. 2. Northern Ireland­-History. 1. Title. II. Series. DA990.U46B39 1996 941.6--dc20 96-11231

ISBN 978-90-481-4704-5

Figures and photos not otherwise credited, are copyright of the author.

Printed on acid-free paper

AII Rights Reserved © 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht OriginallY published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1996

No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means. electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system. without written permission from the copyright owner.

CONTENTS

Foreword vii

List of figures IX

List of photos xii

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1. A physical space powerfully shaped by man 1

Chapter 2. Conquest, plantation and landlordism 21

Chapter 3. Famine and aftermath 61

Chapter 4. A long-drawn struggle 83

Chapter 5. An imbalanced society 121

Chapter 6. Regional planning and housing in an embattled space economy 135

Chapter 7. A divided city 147

Chapter 8. Beyond Northern Ireland: different interpretations 167

Chapter 9. Beyond Northern Ireland: the practical prospects 181

References 195

FOREWORD

«They will never have us, because we are warlike»

A noted Protestant "liberal" academic of Northern Ireland, discussing Ireland's potential reunification.

«Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.»

Matthew, 26, 52.

The Celts were the first peoples to experience as Anglo-Saxon invasion, beginning with the Britons of the Province of Brittania after the withdrawal of the Romans; then what was left of them was also subject to attack in the so-called "Celtic periphery", including Ireland, after the conquest of what is now England was consolidated.

Having built their empire in the British Isles, the English moved overseas and made their power felt in all continents. Where they did not conquer, or where their conquest did not last, they managed to exercise a deep cultural influence.

In this way English has become the language of the modem world, as Latin and Greek had become the languages of the ancient Euro­Mediterranean world.

There is something grand and admirable in all that, in the power and civilization of empires like the Roman and the British. But there is also something inherently vain in every human endeavour: empire building is by no means the last vain.

After the First World War, the British Empire was seemingly as strong as ever and, but for the loss, a long time before, of a part of North America, still largely intact.

Yet the colonial peoples did not longer accept to be ruled indefinitely.

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viii FOREWORD

The first blow, however, came from very near home: the break-up of the political unity of the British Isles by the unruly Irish: and the last blow is likely to come from Ireland too, after all other colonies have gone.

Northern Ireland is a fragment of a lost empire. The natives there were subdued but never assimilated, whilst the descendants of the settlers have been strong enough to oppose reunification so far, but are unable either to tum the tide or to get adjusted to a united Ireland.

So, in a way, this is a book on vanity, the vanity of the human condi­tion. The vanity of power and conquest; the vanity of resisting inevitable change; the vanity of hatred and violence from any quarter whatsoever; the vanity of victory, as the victors too are destined to be ground to dust.

LIST OF FIGURES

1.1 - Geological sketch of Ulster (Source: Wilson).

1.2 - Geomorphology: drumlin belts and hydrology (Source: Orme).

1.3 - Geomorphology: main natural regions of Ulster (Source: Wilson).

1.4 - Average daily sunshine and temperature, 1951-80. No specific climatic station was indicated in the original data. However this does not need to be any serious drawback at this simple introductory level, in view also of the comparatively homogenous conditions throughout Northern Ireland. (Source of data: CSO, Annual Abstract of Statistics, 1989 Edition).

1.5 - Average temperature (1951-80) and rainfall (1941-70). Again, no specific climatic station was indicated in the data, and this is more serious, as rainfall actually varies not inconsiderably throughout Northern Ireland. For the pattern of rainfall distribution, see the following Figure. (Source of data: CSO, Annual Abstract of Statistics, 1989 Edition).

1.6 - Average number of days with one or more millimetres of rainfall, 1941-60 (Source: Atlas of Ireland).

1.7 - A sketch of the development process, which promises well, at least initially. For explanation, see text.

2.1 - English and Scottish settlers on plantation estates in 1622. (Source: Robinson).

2.2 - English and Scottish settlers in percentage of total population by parish, about 1659. (Source: Robinson).

2.3 - Protestant inhabitants in percentage of total population by parish, about 1766. (Source: Robinson).

2.4 - Ethnic segregation between "British" and Irish on two plantation estates in the Clogher Valley, Co. Tyrone, in 1627 and 1666. (Source: Robinson). Strictly speaking, the term "British" is inappropriate, since Great Britain came into existence only with the Union of England and

ix

x

Scotland in 1707. By "British", in this case, is meant either an English or a Scottish settler.

3.1 - Population growth and percentages of Catholics by Province. (Sources: for 1732 An Abstract of the Numbers of Protestant and Popish Families in the several Counties and Provinces of Ireland taken from the returns made by the Hearthmoney Office in Dublin, 1723-33, Dublin, 1734; for 1834 First Report of the Commission on Public Instruction, Ireland, London, 1835, completed by data of Beaumont, 1839 and McCullDch, 1839).

3.2 - Social conditions in the Irish countryside from the Third Report of the Irish Poor Inquiry Commissioners, London, H.M. Stationery Office, 1837, and the Report from Her Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of the law and practice in respect to the occupation of land in Ireland, 3 vols., Dublin, H.M. Stationery Office, 1845.

3.3 - Two Irish villages, in the second half of the nineteenth century, looked totally different: (i) Annvale, Co. Armagh, in Ulster, and (ii) Tullig, Co. Kerry, in Munster. They are good examples of the contrast between the comparative prosperity of better accessible and more industrialized areas and the depopulation of peripheral areas in the aftermath of the Great Famine (by kind permission of Oxford University Press).

4.1 - Social pyramids in Ulster and in the other three provinces at the time of partition (1921). In the event, partition did not occur on provincial lines, but Ulster was also pmtitioned, so that the common usage of the name "Ulster" to indicate NOlthern Ireland, which has only 6 counties, is utterly wrong.

5.1 - Relationships between central and peripheral areas compared with local majorities. Although based upon old data, the pattern shown here still holds. If anything, segregation has tended to increase. The maps are based upon a subdivision of present-day Northern Ireland into 67 local administrative units (Source: Hoare).

5.2 - First component (accounting for 39.9% of total variance) of principal components analysis of economic and social imbalances in Northern Ireland. Explanation in text.

6.1 - Regional planning framework.

7.1 - First component (accounting for 54.5% of total variance) of principal components analysis of social pathologies in the urban area of Belfast. Explanation in text.

8.1 - A model of the conflict process in a traditional society.

8.2 - Conditions paving the way to conflict after the onset of the industrial revolution.

8.3 - A model of controlled conflict under an external superordinate authority.

xi

LIST OF PHOTOS

1 - The Giant's Causeway, on the northern coast of Co. Antrim.

2 - The columnar basalts of the Giant's Causeway exploited as a tourist attraction.

3 - Carrickfergus Castle (late 12th - 13th century). A control point at a gateway of colonial penetration. In the early 17th century it became one of the main power bases of the Chichesters and a grim jail for Sir Con O'Neil of Clandeboy, whose lands were conveted by the invaders (Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. Crown Copyright).

4 - Stormont Building: formerly a sign of Unionist power.

5 - An Orange Order march. The still picture does not unfortunatemly convey the loud noise which is an essential part of the show.

6 - Loyalist simbols in South Belfast: a mark of territorial control.

7 - Lower Falls, West Belfast.

8 - A gutted building in South Belfast: the effect of an incendiary device planted in the shop at the ground floor by the IRA.

9 - A civil war landscape in Central Belfast: the effect of an IRA car bomb.

10 - One more building in Central Belfast razed by an IRA car bomb.

11 - Security barrier erected as a protection of the central business district of Belfast.

12 - The wall parting two ghettoes in Central Belfast: Catholic Falls and Protestant Shankill (From De Telegraaj, Amsterdam. Copyright Reuter).

xii

INTRODUCTION

Northern Ireland came into existence, as a region of the United Kingdom, in 1921. When the greater part of Ireland attained independence, the Protestant-Unionist population of six out of the thirty-two Irish counties managed to retain the old British connection in spite of the presence of a very substantial Catholic minority who might have preferred to live under an Irish government.

This partition brought forth a true problem region, with an area of 14,000 square kilometres only - one sixth of the whole of Ireland, and considerably smaller than Wales. It stands to reason that Northern Ireland cannot be studied in isolation. Reference will have to be made to Ireland as a whole, to Eire, to Great Britain and to interactions of Ireland with the rest of the world, especially NOith Amelica.

The consequences, economic and political, of the partition are still with us as Europeans, and are worth looking at. To understand the consequences, however, it is necessary to know the causes. Any attempt to grasp a current situation calls for a scrutiny of the beginnings, the historical roots of present problems, as authoritatively suggested by Tocqueville. We cannot trust "instant books" trying to take snapshots of the latest facts and sometimes seeking to interpret them without considering how they evolved. Another snag to be studiously avoided, in my opinion, is following the fashions of the "politically correct" from any quarter soever; for we must not seek the favour of the world, but the truth.

Books on Northern Ireland already fill a great many bookshelves. Its problems have been approached by many authors from all angles. But they have not yet been solved, and until a solution is forthcoming, there will be something to say; perhaps, from time to time, even something new. When a solution is found, someone will come up with something to say on, or against, the solution itself, and so the publishers (and, hopefully, the readers) will still be kept busy.

I have been working on Northern Ireland since 1984, and being neither Irish nor British, I may perhaps have been able to see things under a somewhat impartial angle. And yet, as a foreigner? Is not living in a common European homeland a sufficient reason for a concern about what happens in any part of our own home, Europe?

xiii

xiv INTRODUCTION

The approach of this book will not please some. If "to please" is meant "to attempt to curry favour," I have sought to "please" no one. I have trespassed on entrenched prejudices from different quarters. I consistently call Derry by its original name, rather than "Londonderry," thus angrying the Unionists. I call the British Isles with their proper name because the refusal of this name by the extremist Irish Republicans is ludicrous: were not the Britons Celt, and not Anglo-Saxon, after all? By choosing the names "Great Britain" and "British Isles," the English have paid homage, whether wittingly or not, to the Celtic past. So I will probably make the Republicans angry too. No apology is offered for these and similar cases.

Understanding a complex situation may assist a little in changing it. And if Western Europeans, and Westerners in general, cannot solve their own ethnic conflicts, how can they help others in the savage revival of ethnic and tribal struggles now spreading all over the world?

A short explanation of the title of this book is in order. The gist of the argument is that history is moving beyond Northern Ireland: a politically artificial construction which the British government of the day did not even particularly want. Only the Protestant-Unionists, with the support of British Conservatives, wanted it, and forced the rest of the world to accept it. Eventually, their regime collapsed, compelling Westminster to establish direct rule over the region. In time - we do not yet know when and at what cost - a united Ireland seems inevitable, and it is in the best interest of Britain to help in achieving it.

Some scholars will find fault with this book as I have found fault with theirs. This is part of the unavoidable clash of views and interests in a harsh and long-drawn ethnic struggle. A study on conflict cannot help becoming itself a part of the conflict and attract criticism from those who perceive their interests to be under attack: it is a perfectly normal consequence of any honest quest for truth.

This my second book on Ireland. The first one, in Italian, published in 1992, deals with Ireland as a whole. The title is Irlanda. Sviluppo e conflitto alta per(feria d 'Europa , which translates in English to: Ireland. Development and conflict at the periphery of Europe. I must say with some satisfaction that I have been encouraged to translate the book by a review in Irish Geography.

Instead of a translation, I thought it best to produce a new book. This time I have been led to focus only upon Northern Ireland by the fact that the subject appears to be of more vibrant and controversial interest -controversies are the very heaIt of the quest for truth - due to the ongoing conflict in the region. This book is not a mere reshuft1illg of some parts of

INTRODUCTION xv

the earlier book, as it contains a lot of new material and has been considerably updated.

As I am an academic (University of Cagliari, Italy), I tend to inflict my books on my luckless students. So, among other things, they have to study Ireland. They - my students - seem rather interested, perhaps because the insular and rather peripheral situation of the "emerald isle" calls for intriguing comparisons with our own beautiful island of Sardinia. A more disenchanted view is that they must study it or fail the examination.

I have, unfortunately for myself and luckily for my English-speaking readers, no such leverage upon them. I will therefore, endeavour not to be too heavy, which is a rather hard task for a Fellow (with the capital "F," meaning a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society) weighing over fourteen stones.

My most sincere thanks go to my wife Maria Antonietta for her patience and to Prof. Russell King, Prof. Frederick Boal and Dr. Philip Robinson for encouragement and constructive criticism. Discussion with Prof. Paul Compton has also been most enlightening, though he, and the colleagues of his (Unionist) persuasion, will hardly be prepared to agree with the stance taken here. Of course, this stance, as well as any remaining inaccuracies, are my sole responsibility.