Segregation in Belfast has increased since the Northern Ireland peace process began, with Protestant and Catholic enclaves more entrenched and violence on the rise, according to new research.
Surveys carried out among 4,800 households in 12 neighbouring estates separated by so-called peace lines - usually brick walls or metal barriers - show there is less integration than 10 years ago, particularly among younger people.
Prejudice on both sides was so marked among 18- to 25-year-olds that 68 per cent had never had a meaningful conversation with anyone from the other community. In all age groups, six out of 10 said they had been victims of verbal or physical abuse since the first ceasefire of 1994, and the same number believed community relations had worsened during the same period.
Dr Peter Shirlow, who is presenting his findings to the Royal Geographical Society and Institute of British Geographers conference in Belfast tomorrow, said the findings contradicted what politicians involved in the peace process hoped and believed was happening.
"Everyone sees themselves as a victim in Northern Ireland," he said. "There is a complete denial of the other side's victimhood; people cannot see themselves as perpetrators of violence and intimidation, only as victims of the opposite camps."
Dr Shirlow, who is a senior lecturer in geography at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, used specially trained members of both communities in the estates to conduct the research.
A further survey of 40,000 jobs in Belfast showed that workforces were also segregated. A mere 5 per cent of the workforce in companies located in areas dominated by the Protestant community are Catholics, and 8 per cent of Protestants had jobs in Catholic areas.
Dr Shirlow's research has been backed up by an as yet unpublished analysis of the 2001 census. This showed that in Belfast in 1991, 63 per cent of the population lived in areas that were either more than 90 per cent Protestant or 90 per cent Catholic. By 2001, this had risen to 66 per cent, showing that segregation was rising.
Figures from the Northern Ireland housing executive reinforce this view. After the 1994 ceasefire, there was an upsurge of hope. Three thousand people moved into areas dominated by the other religion in the belief a new era was beginning. By 1996, the trend had reversed. Since then, 6,000 families have moved back into areas dominated by their own religion.
Dr Shirlow said the most significant single factor in these changes was the dispute in 1996 at Drumcree, where the loyalist community had been prevented from marching through an increasingly republican area. It had polarised opinion and increased fear in both communities.
The division had manifested itself again in the Catholic Ardoyne and Protestant Upper Ardoyne areas this autumn in the dispute at Holy Cross primary school, when Protestants hurled a pipebomb at Catholic children walking to school.
According to the survey, older people were more likely to cross sectarian lines to shop and to attend health centres and other facilities. They were less likely to see themselves as potential victims of violence and more inclined to see good in people on the other side. This was mainly because they had memories and contacts in the other communities from before the Troubles erupted in 1968.
Young people were least likely to cross the peace lines. The number of acts of violence was increasing. Although the number of murders had decreased, the number of fist fights and other acts of intimidation or physical attack was rising.
For example, Dr Shirlow said, there had been two knee-cappings on Wednesday night. In both cases the ambulance was called before the attack had taken place. When the sirens were heard, the victim was shot. The idea was to punish, not to kill, Dr Shirlow said.
The only ray of hope was in the suburban and country areas. Here, the mixing of communities was greater than before 1994, mainly because Catholics with better opportunities and jobs were moving to more affluent areas. Dr Shirlow said the only way to break down this division in Belfast was to get the issue into the political arena. What was needed was some kind of "experience commission", where people with similar experience from both communities could share their knowledge.
"Currently Catholics see themselves as victims of loyalists and the British state, loyalists see themselves as victims of republicans and now the British state. We have to show that they are both victims and perpetrators." - (Guardian Service)