According to a 2007 Tearfund survey survey, Northern Ireland is the most religious part of the UK, with 45% regularly attending church. I personally like to call myself a Hopeful Agnostic. I think I want to believe there’s something out there, whether that’s God or the Universe or something else, I don’t know. More importantly, for N.I. at least, I don’t really identify as Protestant nor Catholic.
Technically, I’m a prod, based on my family, but in terms of my politic beliefs and religion etc, I don’t fully agree with either side. Unfortunately this isn’t the case for the vast majority of the population of N.I. I say ‘unfortunately,’ not because I think there’s anything wrong with having your own faith, but because of the amount of hatred these beliefs have bred amongst our communities.
Examples of this hatred can be seen not only in our everyday lives, and our history, but also in our holidays. Namely, the 12th of July. As a Prod, the Twelfth should be a happy holiday for me, something I look forward to all year like many other’s my age. However, it’s clear to me, that this holiday does nothing but create even more of a divide between the two communities. It’s meant to celebrate the Protestant King William of Orange’s victory over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, which began the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, which is already an obviously touchy subject for Catholics. However over the years it’s turned more and more into a ‘screw the Catholics, Prods are better’ sort of event, with people marching in bands, building massive bonfires, burning the Irish flag as an insult to those believing in a United Ireland (Catholics), along with just downright violent behaviour. I’ve grown up being told not to go out on the 12th night for fear of being assaulted. To anyone other than those who partake in it, it’s obvious that most of these displays are that of Supremacy over the Catholics and an excuse to act like a d**k, and therefore, in my mind, the complete opposite of what Northern Ireland needs.
Part of me wonders whether marching of Protestant bands should be allowed so frequently (as it happens for a whole season) since it’s clearly a cause of stress and hatred for Catholics. It’s not just Prods that partake in these behaviours. Some Catholics get unruly on St Paddy’s etc too. In a country where the divide needs to be mended in order to prevent anything like the Troubles occurring again, should these actions take place? If only it were that easy. Most people don’t think as I do, and are determined to hold onto these ways of living, even to their own detriment, so change won’t be easy to come by. Again, that’s why I’m doing this project. In the hopes that ignorance does indeed breed hate, and through awareness, this change will eventually come.
time to change 