Background to the Research

• The conflict that exists in NI cannot be rooted in direct economic explanations which focus on the abstraction of inequality, deprivation and opportunism. However, in this paper it is argued that socioieconomic factors do provide a collateral explanation, which is crucially embedded in, and underpinned by, different material interests between the two communities. Moreover, it is these socioeconomic conditions that have impinged indirectly upon the conflict in terms of nature, direction and potency of sectarianised politics. The paper examines the role socioeconomic conditions play, or have played, within the perpetuation of sectarianised identities in order to offer insights which may illustrate the complexity and actuality of sectarianism as a mode of domination within Northern Irish Society.
  

Research Approach

• The sociopolitical nature of state-directed policy making within Northern Irish society, and the impact of distinct periods of economic and political change upon the cultural and political profile of Ulster loyalism in particular, is examined. In order to do this, empirical evidence indicating the nature of socioeconomic alteration and interviews from leading loyalist politicians and paramilitaries were drawn upon.
  

Main Findings

• This paper first addresses theoretical perspectives of loyalism and sectarianism. The authors argue that it is within this context of sectarian domination that any analysis of the relationship between economic structures and social relations in NI must be examined, alongside a comprehensive understanding of the historic place of sectarianism. The paper then comments on three distinct periods of economic and political activity. These in turn can be defined as the Post-Partition, Post-World War Two and Post-industrial epochs.

Post-Partition:The Construction Of Unionist Hegemony (1921-1950s)

• The partition of Ireland in 1921 effectively created a Protestant pro-British majority in both political and economic terms. However, this did not automatically mean that the Protestant working class would serve the interests of the Unionist-controlled industry and state.
• The newly formed states' power holders were fearful of three political outcomes; the Protestant working class would engage in socialist/laborist politics; the anti-sectarian position of several prominent trade unionists engendered the belief that the emergence of pan-community politics would similarly undermine the dominance of the Protestant bourgeoisie. The final threat was the Catholic minority whose support for unification with the southern regime threatened the very survival of the State
• In order to resolve these tensions, it was vital for the Protestant bourgeoisie to weld together a political and cultural alliance which eliminated the threat of the Protestant working class engaging in political activities beyond Unionist Party control.

Post-World War II: The Dissolution of the Unionist Hegemony (1950s -1972)

• After World War II, the demand for social democracy and the idea of social citizenship, central to the post-war restructuring of Western Europe, was placing Unionist rule under increasing strain.
• At the same time, the endurance of political and economic alienation was no longer acceptable to a Catholic minority which began to promote collective action as an expression against the perpetuation of sectarianised modes of domination.
• During this period, the Unionist regime failed to create a sociopolitical format capable of transforming the very society which it had fabricated and as a result the Protestant working class began to operate as sponsors of the sectarianised practices which operated during the post-partition period.

"Post-Industrialism" in Northern Ireland (1970s-1995)

• The evolution of a post-industrial economy in NI has been characterised by continued deindustrialisation and by the state's adoption of economic strategies designed to "manage" armed sociopolitical conflict.
• These standard features of the post-industrial economy - flexible labor markets, deindustrialisation and the creation of low income service employment - have had a myriad effects upon the class structure and, as a consequence, the political fabric of NI.

Conclusions

• The need to provide a sense of socioeconomic and political normality during the period of conflict has in turn meant that the British state has deployed planning and industrial support structures which are unprofitable in economic terms but not necessarily in political terms.
• Rioting, punishment shootings, arms purchasing and street violence still continue and the hostility between the two communities is still clearly evident. This indicates the failure of contemporary policy-making to resolve the overall pattern of conflict and indicates that the British state, presented with the problem of sectarianism, has merely ensured a modicum of "normality" for investors and sections of the burgeoning middle-classes.