Contributor:

Professor Marianne Elliott

Talk Title:

Partition's Casualties: religious minorities in the new states
Talk Synopsis:

This talk looks at the experience of minority communities in the decades that followed Partition and some of the social, religious and political factors involved. It suggests that Partition ‘created two states whose characters were informed by sectarianised religious cultures’ and explores how community relations have changed over time. It describes the impact of violence and discrimination and the role played by religion in public life and how this has been attenuated, to varying degrees, in both states. It also argues that ‘unionism and the Catholic church still behave like endangered species in Northern Ireland’ and speculates about the effect which Brexit might have on constitutional arrangements more generally.

Short Biography:

Professor Marianne Elliott is Professor emerita at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool.

Further Reading:

Protestant and Irish: the minority's search for place in independent Ireland – Ian d’Alton and Ida Milne (eds.)
Descendancy: Irish Protestant Histories since 1795 – David Fitzpatrick
When God Took Sides: Religion and Identity in Ireland – Unfinished History – Marianne Elliott
The Catholics of Ulster: A History – Marianne Elliott
‘Rendering to God and Caesar’: The Irish Churches and the Two States in Ireland, 1949-73 – Daithi Ó Corráin
Smyllie's Ireland: Protestants, Independence, and the Man who ran the Irish Times – Caleb Wood Richardson