‘Left to Fend for Themselves’: Immigration, Race Relations and the State in Twentieth Century Northern Ireland

Abstract

Race relations legislation was only introduced to Northern Ireland in 1997, 31 years later than in Britain. This article examines the obstacles and challenges faced by minorities there during the twentieth century. By providing a case study of Northern Ireland, the article shifts the focus away from British inner cities, emphasising that outlying regions-so often overlooked within the context of UK race relations historiography-also had to grapple with issues surrounding race and immigration. The article challenges the notion that Northern Ireland was exclusively white, showing how ethnic minorities there were repeatedly overlooked and excluded.

Methodological nationalism and the Northern Ireland blind-spot in ethnic and racial studies

“…The Bill proposed to prohibit discrimination on grounds of "colour, race or religion" in NI (cited in Osborne 1982, 332). The fear of the NI government was that any such legislation would be used by Catholics in NI, to launch legal challenges to the anti-Catholic (sectarian) policies that were institutionalized in the running of NI, both in official Stormont government policy and in many everyday practices (Crangle 2018). The UK government was aware of demands for anti-discriminatory legislation in NI, the NI-based Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ) had been lobbying the UK Prime Minster for legislation that would outlaw religious discrimination (De Fazio 2012;Purdie 1990).…”

Achieving Reproductive Justice: Some Implications of Race for Abortion Activism in Northern Ireland

“…Although this seems to dovetail with Meaney, when relating an articulation of women as ‘conveniently flawed boundary guards’ (Louise Ryan, cited in McCormick, 2009, p. 207)—who allegedly need policing by men as a result of their susceptibility to foreign influence—to the North, McCormick replaces fear of influence from abroad with fear of influence from across the sectarian divide . This is indicative of the tendency in NI of the ‘two communities frame’ to absorb and diminish concerns about anything but sectarian difference (see e.g., Crangle, 2018; Pierson, 2018). Even scholarship applying intersectionality theory to the NI context often deals with race only in a general way or specifically in relation to the United States (see e.g., Rooney, 2007).…”

Interrogating the politicization of female genital cutting (FGC) within conditions of asymmetrical cultural convergence. A case study of Northern Ireland

“…There is a history of slow legislative responses and inadequate policies to address racism in Northern Ireland (Knox, 2011;Crangle, 2018). The first basic protections for ethnic minorities were introduced in 1997, through the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order, 31 years after Britain's first Race Relations Act, 1965.…”

“…This built momentum in favour of anti-racist legislation. Increasing evidence was provided which proved Northern Ireland did in fact have a problem with racism and thus arguments about racism not being an issue could no longer be dismissed out of hand (Knox, 2011;Crangle, 2018). In 1998, Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act, contained provisions that public bodies should actively seek to address discrimination on a range of categories including gender, race and disability.…”