Life in Two Enclave Areas. Chapter 3: Segregated Living

We were interested in respondents' views about life in enclave areas, and about the impact of segregation on the quality of life. Segregation, however, for those who have lived in relatively homogenous areas all their lives, may not be a concept which is seen as relevant to them, or that they can identify with. To begin with, therefore, we asked people the following question:

19. Segregation is widespread in Northern Ireland and takes a number of
different forms. We are interested in housing segregation. Do you see the
*Fountain/ Gobnascale as a segregated area?

(* questionnaires in the Fountain said "Fountain"only and in Gobnascale said
"Gobnascale" only)

Responses from each area are shown in the table below.

Thus we can see that 70% or more in each community see the area as segregated, with 7% more Fountain respondents seeing their area as segregated, while 19% of Gobnascale respondents and 18% of Fountain residents did not see the area as segregated. This can be depicted diagrammatically, as seen below. That such a sizeable proportion of each community should not see their area as segregated, and that there is no significant difference between the two communities on this question, may seem strange to the outsider. From the qualitative work, however, we learned that the stigma attached to living in a segregated area - often regarded as a "bad" area is something which some residents seek to avoid. A number of strategies can be employed in order to achieve this, for example, Gobnascale residents referring to the area as "Top of the Hill", and Fountain residents seeking to avoid declaring that they lived in the Fountain. This reluctance to identify the area as segregated could be related to these "stigma management" strategies, as well as perhaps being designed to avoid sectarian attack. It is worth noting, however, that as we discuss segregated communities, roughly 20% of residents in each of the two communities we examined do not attach the label "segregated" to their community.

Graph

In earlier qualitative work, we became interested in the distinguishing features of life in enclave communities. From the in-depth interviews in each area, from general observations and from gleaning the results of earlier studies in Northern Ireland enclaves, (Murtagh, 1992) we constructed a list of characteristics of life in enclave areas. Question 20 asked respondents in both areas to examine the list of "some of the things that people say about living in a segregated community in Northern Ireland" and "say whether you agree or disagree that these are part of life in a segregated community." Responses from each community are shown in the following table.

By far the most frequent item selected by residents in both areas was the statement, "a segregated community is a sitting target for sectarian attacks." There was some divergence between the two communities after this, but there was agreement that among the most important four statements about enclave communities were also "freedom to express your own culture", and "confirms your sense of identity". The Fountain ranked "freedom to speak your mind" among the top four - possibly related to being a Protestant community in a majority Catholic city - and Gobnascale ranked "loss of opportunity to learn about the other community" among the top four, perhaps for similar reasons. Thirty eight percent in both communities thought that segregation brought the community closer together.

Divergence was significant in six issues: "freedom from fear", "loss of natural friendship", "lack of understanding of other community", "loss of opportunity to learn about the other community", "prevents political development and change", and "freedom to express your own culture". Forty two percent of Gobnascale respondents thought that "freedom from fear" was a feature of segregated living, whereas only 29% of Fountain respondents thought so. The location of the Fountain is possibly an explanatory factor in this divergence, surrounded and highly visible in the city centre. although it may also be due to other differences between the two areas.

Forty six percent of Gobnascale residents felt that segregated living meant a "loss of opportunity to learn about the other community" whereas only 33% of Fountain residents thought so. Again, this is possibly related to the overall balance of population in the city, where the Catholic majority have made a significant impact on the city's culture, with Irish street names and other cultural innovations. As Baker Miller (1992) points out, the subordinate group always know more about the dominant group than the dominant group know about the subordinate group. Conversely, fifty seven percent of Fountain respondents thought that segregated meant " freedom to express your own culture", whereas this was indicated by only 44% of Gobnascale respondents. From the qualitative data, residents spoke of the "siege mentality" and the importance of remembering the siege through marches and annual commemorations. Living in a majority Catholic city in a segregated enclave, the capacity to express the culture of Protestantism and loyalism clearly influenced responses on this question.

We asked a series of questions about the amount and kind of contact respondents had with people from the other community. From the earlier interviews, people in each of the communities had described relationships and friendships which crossed the sectarian divide prior to the trend of increased segregation becoming established, and prior to the "troubles". We began by asking about the people respondents socialised with. Question 26 on the questionnaire asked:

Responses to question 26 are shown in the table and diagram below.

Responses to this question indicate that contact with the other community is low in both areas, but is significantly less (.008) in Gobnascale than in the Fountain. Twenty three percent of respondents in Gobnascale and 17% in the Fountain said that all of the people they socialise with are from the same community as themselves. This can be represented diagrammatically (see following table).

Graph

When the cumulative percentages in each community are calculated, it emerges that 65% of Gobnascale respondents have a social life, all or most of which is with people from the Catholic community. The equivalent figure for the Fountain is 64%. (see table below)

From the qualitative data, we knew that in each area, there were a number of mixed marriages and cross community relationships, so we then asked about relatives, including relatives by marriage. The results are shown in the table below, and represented in the subsequent diagram.

Graph

Again, the picture which emerges is that over three quarters of respondents in both communities have half or more than half of their relatives came from the same community as they are from. This is clear when the cumulative percentages are calculated, as in the table below. Again the trend towards homogeneity amongst family members was reported more frequently by Gobnascale respondents, and the differences between the two areas were significant (.01). This is possibly related to the overall population balance in the city, where Protestants are in a minority in the city as a whole.

Finally, we asked people whether their neighbours, as far as they knew, were from the same community as them. Responses to this question are shown in the table below and the following diagram.

GRAPH

When we examine the cumulative percentages, (see table below) we discover that 81% of Gobnascale respondents and 72% of Fountain respondents thought that between half and all of their neighbours were from the same community as they were, and again the differences between the two communities were significant (.006) . From the data on the religious composition of the two samples, we know that both are predominantly either Catholic or Protestant. (The Fountain sample was 84% Protestant and the Gobnascale sample was 94% Catholic.) Variations in the answers to this question could be due to simply misunderstanding the question, or to a resistance, noted in earlier question, to identifying the area as segregated, which can be tantamount in the eyes of some to being labelled "sectarian". Another explanation is that some of the more isolated residents are unaware of the composition of the area, and several respondents commented that some of the questions were "a bit near the knuckle" or sensitive, and this is, perhaps, reflected in the response to this question and to the overall response rate.

One last question examined respondents reactions to the trend towards increased segregation in the city. Question 21 was as follows:

21. As you may be aware, the population balance in this city has changed
over the last 20 years from:

5 Catholics to 2 Protestants in 1971 to
11 Catholics to 2 Protestants in 1991.

Respondents were asked to tick any of a range of responses that described their reactions. The results of question 21 are shown in the following table.

It is noteworthy that there is no available data on attitudes in the city as a whole to the movement of Protestants out of the city with which to compare these data. At an earlier stage in the project, we engaged in some qualitative work on this issue, from which we established that there were some negative and some apathetic attitudes amongst the Catholic community, as well as some concern to arrest the deepening of segregation. In this context, the attitudes in these two communities appear, at an impressionistic level, to be congruent with attitudes we observed in the wider city area, although a study of the wider city attitudes would be required to establish this. Significant differences occurred between the two areas on all responses, with the exception of the "don't care" response. In all other cases, Fountain scores showed more concern about the change in population balance, with Gobnascale respondents showing more satisfaction about the trend.

In order to examine the findings in question 21, we organised the responses under three headings: positive , which include anger, "sadness", "concern to change the trend", "Protestants moving out are a loss to the city", "it is no longer a mixed city", and a number of "other" responses which fell into the same category; negative, which include "pleased that it is happening", and a number of other responses; and neutral, which include surprise, confirmed suspicions about population movement, don't care, and a number of "other" responses which fell into this category. We then calculated the numbers of positive negative and neutral responses for each community and the results are shown in the table below.

We found "negative" attitudes are non-existent in the Fountain community, not surprisingly, since the issue discussed touches on the welfare of Protestants in the city. However, 68% of Fountain respondents had neutral responses to the issue. It is possible that the attitude of "religion should not matter" has influenced respondents who hold that view, to use the "don't care" response, in the absence of any other alternative. Nonetheless, from qualitative work, we know that some Protestants have a fatalistic attitude to this trend, regarding it as irreversible, and seeing intervention as pointless. Similarly, a higher percentage (83%) of Gobnascale respondents had "neutral" responses to the issue.

The major difference between the two cohorts was in positive and in negative attitudes in the two communities. Eleven percent of Gobnascale respondents indicated that they were pleased that Protestants were moving out of the city, whereas no respondents in the Fountain were pleased. This raises the issue of the state of community relations and attitudes in the Gobnascale community, but also, as was noted earlier, in the Catholic community in the city as a whole. There appears, on the part of some Catholics, to be a lack of concern for their Protestant neighbours, and negative attitudes to them. References to past practices by the former Unionist council in the city, and what we came to refer to as the "hell slap it up them" attitude, seemed to allow this cohort of Catholics to justify marginalisation of Protestants in the city. On a positive note, 69% of Gobnascale respondents expressed concern and a positive attitude on this issue. However, the major amount of concern came from within the Fountain community itself, as a community that lives with the consequences of this trend, in terms of dwindling population and morale in the community.

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