Troubled Spaces: Territoriality and the Troubles in Northern Ireland

1. Troubled Spaces: Territoriality and the Troubles in Northern Ireland Niall Cunningham (Lancaster) RA Ian Gregory (Lancaster) PIPaul Ell (QUB)Chris Lloyd (QUB)Ian Shuttleworth (QUB)

2. A spatial conflict • Space has played a critical role in the conflict in Northern Ireland and an appreciation of this is crucial in our efforts to achieve a better understanding of the dynamics behind the recent Troubles • Actual and notional boundaries have been central to the formation of identity in Northern Ireland historically • Spatial conflicts endure and still lie at the heart of many inter-communal antagonisms • The Troubles have had a profound effect on the (re)development of the built environment * Photographs courtesy of CAIN, *Brixton Gunner@Flickr

3. The reality: increased detail, increased polarisation

4. Legend peacelines wards Catholics (%) % Cath. pop. by 100m GS 75.0 to 94.9 95.0 or more Protestants (%) % Prot. pop by 100m GS 75.0 to 94.9 95.0 or more Belfast: A divided city Ardoyne/Glenbryn New Barnsley

5. A population in flux Highfield (Protestant) Vere Foster BA Base New Barnsley Henry Taggart Memorial BA Base Ballymurphy (Catholic) Police Station and peaceline

6. Deaths during the Troubles • This study utilises data on all Troubles-related deaths collated by Malcolm Sutton and hosted by Dr. Martin Melaugh at the University of Ulster’s CAIN archive • Search facility enables the user to identify incidents using a diverse range of criteria • An ongoing and constantly revised process with regular input from the wider, non-academic community • ‘Troubled Geographies’ analyses 3,524 deaths from January 1969 to December 2001 http://www.cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/

7. Georeferencing the Sutton database

8. Cartographic Analysis I - Deaths by status group

9. Cartographic Analysis II - Crosstabs • Extremely detailed statistical and spatial data • Powerful physical and notional demarcation of space • Not just one conflict, but many

10. Statistical Analysis – Cluster hunting • Statistical analysis of the data is at an early stage • ‘Moran’s I’ technique looks at the level of spatial autocorrelation between data points by measuring how far variables at those points differ from their mean • OSNI 1 km grid square provide useful quadrats upon which to base the analysis • ‘High-high’ grid squares are those where they and surrounding squares tend to have higher rates of killing, and are hence, ‘clusters’ • ‘High-high’ areas are characterised as disproportionately Catholic and above average on some measures of deprivation Table 1: Summary statistics for all cells Table 2: Summary statistics for ‘High-high’ grid cells

11. History, economy and space Girls’ Primary School Glenbryn Ardoyne

12. War by other means: The Holy Cross Dispute, Ardoyne, Autumn 2001 Holy Cross Girls’ Catholic Primary School Glenbryn (Protestant) Going to school, Ardoyne 2001 • Was not a source of conflict during the Troubles • Glenbryn residents said the protests were the result of years of intimidation from Catholic neighbours • Catholic encroachment? Ardoyne (Catholic)

13. Conclusions & further work Geographical approach has never been attempted before and it offers new possibilities in understanding religious change and religious conflict Very clear geographies of killings developed during the course of the Troubles and different types of killing vary markedly This preliminary research opens the way for a deeper analysis of deaths in relation to a wide range of other factors such as poverty, housing and education • A deeper analysis of the spatial patterns in the Troubles dataset and to relate these to broader socio-economic factors • To disseminate these findings to a broader audience by the creation of an online atlas of Irish Religion and Society • To do so with the intention of going beyond simple binary definitions to explore the varied concurrent conflicts and changing inter-communal relationships which together constituted the modern Troubles