The Economic Impact of the Troubles - Foreign Investment, religion and social class (Leaving Cert History): Revision Notes

The Economic Impact of the Troubles - Foreign Investment, religion and social class

The Oil Crisis, 1973

• In October 1973, a war broke out in the Middle East after a coalition of Arab countries attempted to invade Israel. While the conflict lasted less than three weeks, it significantly impacted the world's economy.

  
  • When the United States supplied the Israelis with weapons, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which was largely made up of Arab countries, retaliated by raising the cost of oil. Almost overnight, the price of oil went up by 70%.
  • The Oil Crisis had a dramatic impact on the world's economies. Due to its distant location from foreign energy supplies, Northern Ireland struggled more than any other area of the United Kingdom.

Declining Foreign Investment

• The UWC strike seriously damaged Northern Ireland's already weakening economy in 1974.

• When the strike ended, it was believed that the economy would recover quickly, but due to the Oil Crisis and other factors, the North's economy only grew by 1.9% per annum from 1973 to 1979, creating fewer than 3,000 jobs per year.

  

• By 1974, one of the North's most famous companies, Harland and Wolff, had to be taken into State ownership to prevent its closure.

Religious and Cultural Identities

• At the heart of the Ulster problem is a conflict of national identity. It consists not only of different national identities but different kinds of national identities rooted in historical evolution. (The Ulster Question since 1945 by James Laughlin)
• The separate identities of the North's nationalist and unionist communities and the religious difference between Catholics and Protestants played a large part in Northern Irish life.
• The two communities were not mutually exclusive: while the majority of Catholics were nationalists and the majority of Protestants were unionist, some Catholics supported unionism and vice versa.
• For the most part, though, nationalist and unionist identities were shaped by different political and religious views, which went far back into Irish history.
• Unionist history stretched back to the plantations of the 17th century, while Catholics looked back even further to the Gaelic traditions of Ulster.
• The cultural differences that persisted between the two communities meant that they lived quite separate lives. Mixed marriages were quite unusual, for example, and were usually met with hostility.

Social Class

• Social class also played a part in shaping people's sense of identity. Middle-class and working-class Protestants were most likely to identify themselves as British.
• Many middle-class Catholics accepted the union, while seeing themselves as Irish, while working-class Catholics were the largest group to support a united Ireland.
• The Protestant-Catholic divide had a huge bearing on attitudes to Northern Ireland's political status, though there were differences, too, between middle- and working-class attitudes.
• Surveys on attitudes in the late 1980s and early 1990s indicated that 84% of middle-class Protestants and 90% of working-class Protestants saw Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. Fewer than 10% saw the North's future as part of a united Ireland.
• Some 30% of middle-class Catholics saw Northern Ireland as part of the UK, though 60% saw the North's future as part of a united Ireland. Working-class Catholic men supported a united Ireland more strongly, with 63% in favour.
• Class divisions also had an impact on support for the North's political parties, with working-class Protestants and Catholics tending to support the DUP and Sinn Féin respectively.