Northern Ireland?

"On one side of the troubles are Irish nationalists who wish to absorb the six counties of Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland; on the other side are Protestants who have lived in Northern Ireland for generations and watn to maintain the loyalty of the region to the British Union. Yet, though the conflict is between Catholic and Protestants, most observers question to what degree religion is actually at the heart of the dispute." (37)

"The problem, Hartley explained, was that the conflict had been made into a religous dispute by the British a century ago when they encouraged large numbers of Protestants from Scotland and England to settle in the Northern Irish counties. The result, Hartley said, was tension between peoples with two different religious labels, and more than that, who different ways of thinking. Hartley speculated that some of the trouble between the two communities was due to differences in what he called the 'thought processes' of the religiouns and in the characteristics of Roman Catholic and Protestant cultures.

Catholics like himself were'hierarchical,' Hartley explained, adding that it was a hallmark of Catholic thinking to assume that all Catholics in a region such asIreland are part of a unified community, the leaders of which can generally count on the loyalty of their people." (37-38)

The Irish Protestants, on the other hand, would never do such a thing. They were democratic 'up their ****, if you dont mind my saying so,' Hartley said. As a result, the y were constantly lookng for local bases of power and did not easily trust other groups or authorities. Hartley explained that even though the Protestants had been nasty ot him and other Catholics, he observed with some surprise that 'they were even nastier to each other.' Their leadership was based not on office but on charisma, which was powerful but ephemeral." (38)

"Like the followers of the Chritsian Identity movement, Paisley conceives of Christianity as being under siege by demonic forces embodied in the government and certain social groups, though in Paisley's case these groups are not Jews and other radical minorities, but Paisley's relgious opponetns: Irish Catholics and apostate Protestants." (40)

"Wright explained that he not only had an obligation to defend his religous compatriates - by violence if necessary - but also that religion provided him a moral sanction to enter into violent encounters. According to Wright, he and his Protestant comrades 'have the right to fight, to defend and to die for what we believe is Truth.'"(41)

"Fr. Faul went on to say that the Catholic culture of the Irish gave them the ability to kill and be killed, since death 'is a sacrifice' and 'the opportunity of forgiveness' lessens the guilt involved in killing" (43)

- Check the source below for more information regarding the conflict, other instances of religious violence, and the theory behind them. :-)

Source: Mark Juergensmeyer - Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (Third Edtion - Completely Revised).

Edit - I get thumbs down for taking time away from Yahoo!Answers and actually reading a book regarding the conflict being asked about?

If you mean what is the differences between the religions, then it is the issue of transubstantiation or taking of holy communion (although some protestant faiths do take a form of communion too). If you mean the nationalist/loyalist divide, then that is a slightly different issue (although nationalists are predominantly catholic and loyalists predominantly protestant). Nationalists goal is the reunification of North and South Ireland and the loyalist goal is to remain under the sovereignty of Great Britain and the Queen.

No offence to any of the above answerers (the first two excepted, they are sensible and informative), but have any of you actually ever lived in Northern Ireland?????? Have you even visited here????? Des R - you are talking rubbish. I have never heard such nonsense in all 31 years I've been alive and living in Northern Ireland. I have lived on both the Shankill and the Falls Roads and have never been so afraid of the accents that I've run away, and no, all Catholics in Armagh do not carry hurlies and salmon, my dear, is actually not yellow, it's orange.

Well basically ever since St. Patrick "Christianized" Ireland it has pretty much been Catholic. To put it nicely the Irish and the English really do not like each other, they never have. England had occupied Ireland for much of its religion, and forced the Church of England on predominately Catholic Ireland. Obviously the Irish resented that, however, eventually Ireland became an independent nation, however, England retained control of Northern Ireland, and many English Protestants live there. However, many Irish Catholics want Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland. As do the majority of Catholics in Ireland, so in an attempt to do this they form groups like the IRA to drive the mainly Protestant English out.

The differences aren't so much religious as political. It is about Irish sovereignty. Northern Ireland is still controlled by Great Brittan. The people on the side of total sovereignty are predominately Catholic and those who want to stay under British rule are mostly Protestant.

the problems (Irish: Na Trioblóidí) became a era of ethno-political conflict in Northern eire which spilled over at distinctive cases into England, the Republic of eire and mainland Europe. The era of the problems is conventionally dated from the late Sixties and recognized by way of many to have ended with the Belfast contract of 1998. Violence even however keeps on a sporadic foundation. The vital themes at stake in the problems have been the constitutional status of Northern eire and the relationship between the specially-Protestant Unionist and specially-Catholic Nationalist communities in Northern eire. the problems had the two political and militia (or paramilitary) dimensions. Its individuals secure politicians and political activists on the two facets, republican and loyalist paramilitaries, and the protection forces of the united kingdom and the Republic of eire.

Are you living in the north. If not, stay away from this problem. The natives don't even know the difference. I've seen protestants run out of the Shankill because of their accent!

All catholics in Armagh carry hurlies!

And protestants are all "as yellow as a salmon"

nothing in the context that they are both violent and building brick walls across the street to seperate the two religions.i was their for nine months policing the streets in northern ireland with the army.thats why im a proud atheist.if you saw the killing and hatred that i saw between the two religions you would truly believe as i do that they worship a devil in disguise.

Their names.

That's about it, really. It's entirely tribal. Even culturally there's little separating them except the occasional battlefield over which aspect of history they prefer.

When you arrive in Belfast set you watch back 317 years.

transubstantiation