I hav3 been reading the book “The Making of the British Army” and in in the author mentions how the Army divided up areas in the Province. He in passing mentioned that Middle Class and Professional Neighbourhoods rarely needed Army help and were quiet and indeed he states that the Troubles were a mostly middle class phenomena.
I can imagine that wealthy or well off people would have less incentive to get into acts which would bring them the attentions of the Security Forces; but what is the Straight Dope?
I think it’s just like anywhere, deprived neighbourhoods are a) more likely to be violent and less-law abiding than richer neighbourhoods b) more fertile grounds for extremism.
As a rule I don’t think comfortable people bother too much with idealogy. And conversely people struggling economically use idealogy as an excuse for taking their frustrations out on others.
I assume you meant to say that “the Troubles were a mostly working class phenomenon”?
This was the indeed case, the majority of personnel in each terrorist organization was drawn from working class areas. The main centres of the Troubles were working class estates in Belfast and Derry, with other hotspots including places like Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh and Newry, Co. Down. In much of the six counties not a whole lot happened during the much of the Troubles, although British Army patrols were so common as to be mundane all throughout NI.
Still today you can see there’s a definite difference between many middle class areas and working class areas in that you’ll rarely see a mural explicitly supporting a terror group in a middle class area. I can’t say for definite that none exist but they seem to be rare.
I’ll admit to being a bit surprised, as from my interactions with the N Irish bar I did see a lot of secretarian feeling; mostly Unionist. Though the Bar would be a much more political place then others.
There is/was plenty of sectarianism in every section of Northern Ireland society, but that’s quite a different thing to doing something that warrants the attention of the British Army. Police/armies can attempt to control people’s actions but can’t really control their thoughts and feelings (yet).
Feelings are one thing, but support dose not mean you join a PIRA squad taking potshots at the UDR and 1 R Irish, it can be as small as going to marches or as a lawyer representing Internees. Many internees for example were so interned for nothing more than cslling for civil rights.
The book I should state makes it sound almost as if the “posh” areas were like London; it states for instance that there was a great amount of resentment amongst the squadies that the officer could go to upscale pubs in said posh areas without problem; not the case for poor Tommy.
That is a key point. Or, to put it another way, urban working-class areas were (and are) highly segregated. I used to hear of young people from working-class areas who claimed never to have met a person from the other community. This despite the fact that the other community was probably no more than 200 metres away.
It is easier to dehumanise, hate, and kill the other person if you never meet them.
I just want to say, be careful with the implication that a lawyer representing a republican is a republican supporter. Lawyers have been murdered in the north just for doing their job.
We left Belfast in '74 during the Troubles but my experience matches your book. Our house was in a leafy suburb out towards Stormont and I don’t remember any question of it being segregated. The grammer school I went to was solidly Protestant but we competed with equivalent Catholic schools at rugby, cricket etc.
Never any threats/problems in our neighbourhood but obviously things got a lot tenser travelling into the centre - numerous bombs close to the school and the odd shooting incident. Having said that the troubles never stopped me going around the city on my own as a young teenager - just had to avoid certain areas.
I knew a woman, a smallholder’s daughter, from a small town in Ulster. The place wasn’t big enough to be effectively segregated – everyone was using the same big shops and public buildings etc. However she told me that in general people knew who was who and avoided unneccessary communication with “the other side”.
The schools were segregated. Secondary school kids (grade 6 up I think) went to different schools in a nearby larger town and caught different dedicated buses to get there. her bus was 15 minute’s earlier than the other lot’s and she told me how horrible it was if she missed it and had to get on the other one. She would sit at the front with her head down and shoulders hunched, cringing all the way home. It seemed ineffably sad to me.
I didn’t ask her about class differences, wish I had now.
AK84 - What you have to bear in mind is that middle-class areas were predominantly Protestant/Unionist, and these people were the ones who had disproportionately benefited from the sociopolitical status quo prior to 1969. Although the British Army had been brought in to protect Catholics initially, it eventually settled into a situation where the Army along with the various security forces were seen as protecting Protestants/Unionists (especially middle-class ones) from the worst excesses of Catholics/Republicans. For the middle-classes the British Army were an irritant, but usually seen as a necessary one.
Imagine Catholic as “African American” and Protestant as “White”.
In working class areas you have segregation and something approaching race war, in middle class (in the British, not US sense) areas everyone has comfortable liberal sensibilities and hides their prejudices behind a veneer of politeness.
You might not want one of “them” as an in-law, but you’ll play golf with them, go to their parties and send your kids on play-dates to their houses.
Wealthy African Americans generally don’t join the Black Panthers, well off white people don’t usually join the KKK. Same applies for paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland.
It is have vs have not and hanging the reason for this on a simplistic identifier.
Yes, irishgirl, I hadn’t thought of it, but it’s worth pointing out to US readers that “middle-class” means “well-off” in the context of this thread (and generally in Britain and Ireland).
It’s also worth mentioning a kind of Marxist conspiracy theory espoused in one form or another by Eamonn McCann and others, that the Troubles suited the interests of the ruling classes by dividing the working class, keeping them fighting among themselves and distracting them from questioning the bigger issues of how society is ordered.
This seems to have some truth in it with regard to the '30s, I’m not sure how true it was in the ‘60s and later. The sectarian card always trumped workers’ solidarity.