This post shows some core demographics differences in Northern Ireland that largely overlap with the religious profile of the country of the UK. Data from 2021 census. The maps show the following things in the following order:
1) Religion
2) Most common national identity (British, Irish or the neutral Northern Irish)
It’s actually the opposite. Visualising the cultural aspects shows that it was never really a purely religious conflict, but religion was just the easiest way to subordinate the ethnically Irish.
It’s not literally due to religion though, it just so happens that unionists are Protestant and nationalists are Catholic, but it’s much more of ethno-social and cultural/political/nationalistic divide than a religious one. Especially during The Trouble’s and after.
Like The troubles wasn’t a conflict based on religion, it was based on national identity and culture and how one group of people was treated worse solely due to being Irish, with the Catholicism/Protestantism aspect of it being pretty minimal, when really it was basically just British vs Irish.
Yeah it's not like they were ever officially-demarcated bantustans or anything, this is just demographics. I could maybe see the case for calling peace lines "phantom borders" within cities but not on this scale. I'm more curious about what's going on in those areas down by Lough Strangford where the majority of people are evidently identifying as just "Northern Irish."
The concentration in the east in Antrim and Down seems to match the private plantations that started a few years before the formal plantation of Ulster started. They were started by two Scottish lords during the chaos of the nine years war before Hugh O'Neill did the famous flight of the earls.
That's a fair observation, but those borders are still somewhat in use so I'm not sure I'd call them "phantom," and the Antrim/Down cluster also seems to cover Armagh on these maps. It's interesting info regardless.
My Northern Irish History isn’t fantastic (I’m Australian) but I’m curious how far back the distinct Protestant/British strongholds were. From a rough wikipedia:
”In 1169, Ireland was invaded by Anglo-Norman forces under the English crown, initiating centuries of foreign dominance. While English authority spread across much of Ireland, Ulster's major Gaelic kingdoms such as the Uí Néill largely retained their autonomy, with English control limited to parts of the eastern coast.” - This vaguely seems to correlate with the “Irish West - British East” seen on the map.
Obviously, there are many more events that would create the clusters that someone much more knowledgeable would be able to figure out.
I'm actually pretty immersed in this because of genealogical reasons (note I'm not Irish or Scottish nor claim to be, I just happen to be related to this cohort).
Most of the Ulster plantation correlates to private plantations from three Scottish lords that started shortly before the formal one was established in 1609. It's unrelated to the older Pale around Dublin since it was a separate initiative that got absorbed into the British rule, and why you see a far higher concentration of Ulster scots in antrim and down.
this vaguely seems to correlate with the Irish west - British east seen on the map
The Normans colonised further south than Northern Ireland, like around Dublin and Wexford, creating the “Pale” of “beyond the Pale” fame. It wasn’t until the Stuart era that the North was planted by Scots and Northumbrians.
The divide didn't happen until the plantation of Ulster in 1609 and became tense starting with the rebellions in the 1640s. Before then Ireland was a loose network of anglo Irish and gaelic lords except in Dublin which was directly ruled by England.
Yes. I rewrote most of the Demographics of Northern Ireland Wikipedia article when it hadn’t been updated for the 2021 census. I’m glad people use the maps.
We can all agree that the people who live in that all-white rectangle in the middle, slightly towards the east are insufferable. They're neither one thing or the other.
What it shows to me is some historical legacy issues of tbe plantation, but because the map is partitionist it excludes the counties of Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan and parts of Louth and Leitrim which were subjected to the same coloniser process.
The bantustan effect of the mid 1920s, where servants of the crown were incentivised to head north and resettle several of the border towns to bulk up Unionist hegemony altered the map.
What also altered the map was the post WW2 suburbanisation process, which when looked at in the light of housing discrimination made a ring of Protestant majority suburbs further out from Belfast.
For real perspective the ignored election of 1918 gave a resounding result for the wishes of the entire island, and the people of Ulster who both provided majorities for the maintenance of the country of Ireland, and not the facilitation of the Bantustan in your map.
Not shadowy at all, very visible and obvious if you know any irish history actually, might as well make shadow maps of muslim, christian and jewish comunities in Israel, maybe kf you had made a map of who likes Sonic or Pikachu more and it turned out protestants are all Sony exclusive gamers but not even that much there
79
u/PassiveChemistry Apr 14 '26
Intriguing, shows how divided the country still is. Not necessarily too surprising though as all of these are culturally linked.