LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Northern Ireland: Irish Catholics
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Keeping Your Irish Up -- If you want to brush up on your knowledge of Northern Ireland, Newshound (www.nuzhound.com) is an indispensable resource. Run by American expat John Fay, this is an extremely well-organized catalog of news articles culled from international newspapers, covering everything from the Troubles to dining and shopping in Belfast. A vast array of articles about the Republic (click "News of the Irish") includes culture, travel, and even dining reviews from Dublin to Donegal. The site is intelligent, user friendly, and searchable.
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In 1997, Northern Ireland made a significant step in the direction of stemming sectarian strife. The first formal peace talks began on Oct. 6 with representatives of eight major Northern Irish political parties participating, a feat that in itself required three years of negotiations. Two smaller Protestant parties, including extremist Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists, boycotted the talks. For the first time, Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, won two seats in the British parliament, which went to Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and his second-in-command, Martin McGuinness. Although the election strengthened the IRA's political legitimacy, it was the IRA's resumption of the 17-month cease-fire, which had collapsed in Feb. 1996, that gained them a place at the negotiating table.
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The new state of Northern Ireland contained a built-in Protestant majority. Premier Craig chose to consolidate unionist power rather than attempt to broaden the appeal of his government and party. His government was arguably under siege but he adopted policies which entrenched this position by changing the electoral system from PR to First Past the Post. He ... altered local government boundaries to the advantage of unionism enabling his party to control the nationalist city of Londonderry. Unionist discrimination against Catholics in housing and employment help explain why Northern Ireland's one party state collapsed in violence 50 years later.
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[I]n July, during the annual Orange Order parade through Portadown, Northern Ireland, Protestant supporters of the Orangemen hurled stones and bricks to protest the ban on marching down Garvaghy Road, past a Catholic enclave in the town. Throughout Northern Ireland, members of the Orange Order march to celebrate the military victory of Protestant King William of Orange over the Catholics in 1690. Two dozen police officers were injured and several people were arrested.
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Today, Northern Ireland comprises a diverse patchwork of communities, whose national loyalties are represented in some areas by flags flown from lamp posts. The Union Flag and former governmental Flag of Northern Ireland therefore appear in some loyalist areas, with the Irish national flag of the Republic of Ireland, the tricolour, appearing in some republican areas. Even kerbstones in some areas are painted red-white-blue or green-white-orange (or gold), depending on whether local people express unionist/loyalist or nationalist/republican sympathies.
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By the summer of 1969 the crisis in Northern Ireland had deepened considerably. Terence O'Neill who had sought to open dialogue with Catholics had resigned and been replaced by Major James Chichester-Clark. Unionists, who had ruled Northern Ireland as a one party state since 1921, had no experience of negotiating with the minority Catholic community. Catholic demands for civil rights had not been satisfied and as the loyalist marching season approached sectarian passions were inflamed.
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