Contributor:

Professor Marianne Elliott

Talk Title:

Partition's Casualties: religious minorities in the new states

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.)