'The doctrine of vicarious punishment': Space, religion and the Belfast Troubles of 1920-22

Journal of Historical Geography

Volumn 40, Issue , 2013, Pages 52-66

  Cunningham, Niall ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Belfast; GIS; Ireland; Partition; Religion; Sectarianism; Troubles; Violence

Indexed keywords

GIS; POLITICAL CONFLICT; RELIGION; SECTARIANISM; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; VIOLENCE;

BELFAST [NORTHERN IRELAND]; NORTHERN IRELAND; UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 84875802894     PISSN: 03057488     EISSN: 10958614     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhg.2013.01.001     Document Type: Article

References (123)

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39. P. Hart, 2003 The I.R.A. at War 1916e1923, Oxford, The major controversies surround Hart's characterisation of I.R.A. activities inWest Cork, most notably the Kilmichael Ambush and Bandon Valley killings, as overtly sectarian. The latter interpretation has been forcefully deconstructed by John Regan
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44. Hart also provides an estimate for deaths in Belfast during the period 1920e1922 of 538
45. Hart, The I.R.A. at War 1916e1923 (note 30), 248
46. This is broadly commensurate with the figure arrived at in this analysis given that Hart's period of study runs up to the end of calendar year of 1922.
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57. Kenna, Facts and Figures of the Belfast Pogroms (note 22), 103.
58. Bomb-throwers busy, Irish Times (23 Mar. 1922).
59. Even one of the Northern Irish government's own ministers saw fit to describe as 'the biggest slum landlord in Europe'. Quoted in J. Bardon and D. Keogh, Introduction: Ireland, 1921e84, in: Hill (Ed.), New History, Vol. VII, lxvi.
60. Even as late as 1959 most of the city's housing infrastructure was still Victorian and it was estimated that as much as one quarter of Belfast's housing stock was unfit for human habitation. See M. Melaugh, Majority Minority Review 3: Housing and Religion in Northern Ireland, Coleraine, 1994, 'Section 2: Housing policy and public reaction 1945 To 1971' available online at: (CAIN website e Majority Minority Review 3: Housing and Religion in Northern Ireland e Section 2: Housing policy and public reaction 1945 To 1971), accessed 6 Dec. 2011. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/csc/reports/mm32.htm
61. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ (National Archives of Ireland 1901 & 1911 Census website), accessed 23 Mar. 2012
62. For a discussion of demographic and spatial patterns of conflict in Belfast between 1969 and 2001 see chapter 10 of Gregory, Cunningham, Shuttleworth, Lloyd and Ell, Troubled Geographies (note 3).
63. Bardon, A History of Ulster (note 11), 471
64. Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War (note 2), 33.
65. A. Boyd, Holy War in Belfast, 3rd Edition, Belfast, 1987, 19e20.
66. Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War (note 2), 33.
67. A. Jackson, Ireland 1798e1998, Oxford, 1999, 254e255.
68. Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland (note 10), 231.
69. Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland (note 10), 231.
70. Policy memorandum on the North-East, 9 Aug., Ernest Blythe Papers, P24/70, University College Dublin Archives (hereafter UCDA). 1922
71. Blythe N.E. policy memo, 9 Aug. UCDA. 1922
72. Hart, The I.R.A. and its Enemies 277e278 1922 (note 30), Lenten pastorals, MR e VI (JOSEPH CARDINAL MACRORY e PERSONAL) (FOLDERS 1e5), ARCH 11/5/2, Armagh Archdiocesan Archives (hereafter AAA). Hart argues that the West Cork killings were an example of precisely the sort of 'vicarious punishment' MacRory's Lenten pastoral had menacingly foreshadowed not two months previously.
73. Lynch, The people's protectors? (note 23), 386.
74. E. Phoenix, Northern Nationalism: Nationalist Politics, Partition and the Catholic Minority in Northern Ireland, 1890e1940, Belfast, 1994, 195e204.
75. Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War (note 2), 213e215.
76. Quoted in The Belfast pogroms, Freeman's Journal (18 Feb. 1922).
77. 1922 Topics discussed & conclusions of meeting of 24 Feb. Cabinet Conclusion Files, Records of Cabinet Secretariat, CAB/4/34, Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (hereafter PRONI).
78. 1922 Personal Diaries of Sir Edward Carson e 18 Feb. MIC665/2/Reel 8/D/1633/2/26, PRONI.
79. Shooting and bombing, Irish Times (6 Apr. 1922)
80. Hart, The I.R.A. at War 1916e1923 (note 30), 251.
81. Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War (note 2), 248.
82. Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War (note 2), 171.
83. I.N. Gregory and P.S. Ell, Historical GIS: Technologies, Methodologies and Scholarship, Cambridge, 2007, 178
84. D. O'Sullivan and D.J. Unwin, Geographical Information Analysis, Hoboken, NJ, 2003, 85e88.
85. A. Feldman, Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland, Chicago, IL, 1991, 36
86. P. Shirlow and B. Murtagh, Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City, London, 2006, 16
87. N. Jarman, Managing disorder: responses to interface violence in North Belfast, in: O. Hargie, D. Dickson (Eds), Researching the Troubles: Social Science Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Conflict, Edinburgh, 2003, 227e228
88. 1922 Minutes of Sir Mark Sturgis (Irish Office), date unknown, probably September, Claims for money on refuges from IFS and NI, Registered Papers, 1920 onwards, Registered Papers, Home Office, HO45/11992, National Archives, London (hereafter NAL). 1839e1979
89. Propaganda and Publicity Department Material, 1921e1924, Department of Foreign Affairs, DFA/EARLY1/BOX6/36, TAOIS S1451, National Archives, Dublin (hereafter NAD)
90. Belfast Pogrom, Summary 1920e22, General Files, Department of the Taoiseach, TAOIS S1451, NAD.
91. Letter from Maxwell (H.O.) to Westerfield (Treasury), 30 Jan. HO45/11992, NAL 1925
92. Lynch, The people's protectors? (note 23), 377e378.
93. Anxious days in the South, Irish Times (29 Apr.). For evidence of the hardships suffered by those displaced southern Protestants, see the heart-rending testimonies in: Files 1e10, Records of the Irish Distress Committee and Irish Grants Committee: Files & minutes, e Irish Office 1795e1930, Colonial Office 1570e1990, CO762/3, NAL. The intimidation was not limited solely to the Protestant population however 1922
94. James F. loyalist Catholics were also targeted. See the evidence of O'Donnell in: James F. O'Donnell, County Donegal, No. 4, 1925e1929, CO762/3/4, NAL. Equally, 'rotten Prods' were also victims of internal policing
95. Daily summary, 14 Oct. Persecution in Northern Ireland, Governor General's Office, DE/2/347, NAD. Belfast Summary 1921 1921
96. Letter from James Craig to Winston Churchill, 19 Sep. 1922
97. Letter from Maxwell to Westerfield (note 71).
98. Lunch hour 'hate', Irish Times (10 Mar. 1922).
99. Building Design Partnership, Belfast Urban Area Plan 1969, Vol. I, Belfast, 1969, 106e108.
100. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ (note 47).
101. Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War (note 2), 151.
102. This is by no means to deny the highly-sectarian character of many industrial workplaces in Belfast at this time; it is merely to argue that these premises did not constitute the same sort of contested defensible space as the city's residential areas.
103. Quoted in Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War (note 2), 181.
104. P.A. Compton, The demographic dimension of integration and division in Northern Ireland, in: F.W. Boal, J.N.H. Douglas (Eds), Integration and Division: Geographical Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Problem, London, 1982, 85e86.
105. Lynch, The people's protectors? (note 23), 381.
106. Record Twelfth in Ulster, Belfast News-Letter (13 Jul. 1920).
107. Correspondence, Belfast News-Letter (15 Jul. 1920).
108. Correspondence, Belfast News-Letter (16 Jul. 1920).
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110. Record Twelfth in Ulster (note 82).
111. M. Elliott, The Catholics of Ulster: A History, London, 2001, 373e379.
112. F.W. Boal, Exclusion and inclusion: segregation and deprivation in Belfast, in: S. Musterd, W. Ostendorf (Eds), Urban Segregation and the Welfare State: Inequality and Exclusion in Western Cities, London, 1998, 100.
113. These changes were not the product of changes to the sizes of wards and resultant population transfers during this period. With the exception of Duncairn and Victoria wards, the ward areal units remained stable between 1901 and 1937. In the case of Duncairn and Victoria wards, both wards increased substantially in spatial terms due to a major programme of land reclamation around Belfast Lough. The drainage of the sloblands created new industrial and port zones in the area of the West Twin in Duncairn ward and also provided the space for a new aerodrome and aircraft factory on the Victoria side of the Lough. For further information see, E. Jones, Land reclamation in Belfast Lough, Ulster Journal of Archaeology 21 (1958) 132e141.
114. Hepburn, A Past Apart (note 25), 115e123.
115. D.L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, Berkeley, CA, 1985, 140.
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118. C. Tilly, The Politics of Collective Violence, Cambridge, 2003, 119.
119. Tilly, The Politics of Collective Violence (note 94).
120. Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War (note 2), 33.
121. Boyd, Holy War in Belfast (note 50).
122. Bardon, A History of Ulster (note 11), 494e495.
123. Bardon, A History of Ulster (note 11), 494e495.