Why did catholics in Northern Ireland protest in they years 1968-1981
During the years of 1968-1981, Catholics faced oppression from the Protestant community as they both had different views on how the country should be run
The Catholic minority in the country at the time, protestants were the majority 2:1, faced discrimination due to the fact that they as a group couldn't get their views across. They could not do this as the majority of housing owned was protestant owned, and protestant ownership meant that protestants had the majority of the vote, as in Ireland, it was law that you could only vote if you owned a house. This meant that the Protestant community were the majority in power and that their viewpoints and way of life was implemented more heavily, and that they had more say with regards to welfare, law, fairness and equality. One surefire example of this was the voting that took place for the new parliament, when the votes came in and showed that there was 14,000 votes for a Catholic Government, but only 9,000 votes for a Protestant government. However when seats were appointed, 12 were given to protestant MP’s and 8 to catholic MP’s, showing that this made no sense and this proves that the voting was rigged and catholics could be more easily discriminated on.
Also adding to this was the fact that the majority of the police force was protestant, 90%, and this meant that the police was biased towards protestants and let them off more lightly than a catholic offender for example, and they saw the catholic community the reason for all the problems in the country at the time. This was seen as negative discrimination and was a factor that caused the protests in Northern Ireland.
Catholics also faced discrimination because of attacks on them while protesting quite innocently, as the events of Bloody Sunday show. 13 unarmed, catholic protesters were shot in the back while running away from Army paratroopers who fired on these innocent people,...