HIST 417 Lecture 17: 11_13
Document Summary
Unionists dominated until the parliament was dissolved in 1970s. Nationalist politics often trump class politics in terms of voting patterns. Union leaders aided in this, convinced protestant workers to vote union. Small northern ireland labour party never got more than 1 or 2. Between 40-60% of mps returned without contest. Not much turnover in terms of mps or pms, only had 3 pms in 40 seats years. 2 counties + belfast with large protestant majorities. 1920-1922 large scale attacks on catholic communities. Sets up protestant-catholic joint commission to investigate violence, joint police force for belfast, etc. However, police force leads to unionist backlash and pact breaks down. Following, see discrimination against catholics, especially in industry. Catholics do relatively less well than protestants, though they still benefit from overall econ improvement. Also discriminated against in civil service hiring. In local government, even when catholics formed majorities, protestants often took power. Plural voting system (businessman had more than one vote)
