why is there a conflict between the catholics and protestants in northern ireland?

Answer 1

From what I can tell, I think it is because they don't like each other much. Each one wants control.

Answer 2

The issue in Northern Ireland is political not religious. The media, who is always looking for short cuts and not the whole story, calls the participants Catholics and Protestants.

The conflict is about whether the British territory (probably the wrong word) of Northern Ireland should remain British or should become part of Ireland.

The majority of people in Ireland are Catholics. The majority of people in England and Northern Ireland are Protestants. There are actually Catholics and Protestants on either side.

The terrorists on either side of the issue are not Christian in any sense of the word.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

The ground of the conflict is not religious but nationalistic. The Irish want their own country (Northern Ireland was temporarily excepted when the rest of Ireland became a free country) while the descendants of the British want to stay a part of the UK. In the early days of the conflict, there were Protestant officers fighting even on the Irish side (and probably some Catholics on the Unionist side), but later the conflict was "kidnapped" by religious rethoric and made into a religious conflict.

Answer 4

This conflict goes back hundreds of years and like others have said is more political than spiritual. Read Trinity by Leon Uris and 1916,1921, 1949, 1972, and 1999 by Morgan Llewelyn. Though novels, these books are historically accurate and paint a realistic picture of the Irish story. During the Irish bid for Independence and Civil War Ulster (Northern Ireland) remained a British Colony. Most of the Irish wanted to be a united and independent country. In Ulster the British and Irish Protestants remained in power. The Catholics have been ghettoized and repressed in their own homeland. There have been riots and conflicts for nearly a century, though there is presently a truce.

Answer 5

Ouch. That needs a long answer.
The short of it. Cromwell came and razed Ireland, and put Protestant at the head of the Catholics. Being a Catholic was a bad thing, you were automatically inferior, and hatred grew. The famine did not help, when the Catholics were the one suffering the most, dying of hunger when wheat was being exported to England by mostly Protestant owners and got kicked out of their houses by those same landowners. When Ireland was given its independence after a long and bloody period the Protestants were a majority in the north and that place was kept by the UK, but the hatred stayed. It didn't help that Protestants were royalists and Catholics republican and wanting to get that last bit of land where they lived too part of the Republic of Ireland. And the two communities stayed separated. Then there were the bombs, and the killer squads, and the killings in revenge of the killing...
That's a very broad and very rough description by the way.

Answer 6

It's got something to do with the English occupation of Ireland going back centuries. The English which were once Roman Catholic became bitterly opposed to the Popes authority some time around the Napoleonic wars. The Irish, however, remained staunch supporters of Catholicism. The English who occupied Ireland were protestant so the two ways of worshiping the same god became ways of identifying who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Just like football teams.

Answer 7

Well I was born there, and from what I have been taught, back in the day when England was conquering new countries, Ireland was one of them.
This caused a rebellion as some didnt want to be "Brittish" ...however others did. When England started giving countries back, alot of Irish complained (as they liked the English system, laws etc).

To solve this England divided the country into 2 (The North and South) All the Irish (Catholics) who wanted to be independant, would live down South, all those who wanted to remain Brittish (Protestant) would live in the North.

However the Catholics want the whole Island to be an independant Ireland (and Catholic) with no Brittish rule, so they are fighting trying to "free their Country" ...however the Protestants in the North dont want to be Independant or Catholic, so they are fighting to stay part of Britain.

Its a religeous war over land.

Answer 8

The Catholics generally want a united Ireland, but the protestants in the north want to remain in the UK.

Answer 9

It is easier to blame it on religious views than on the reality - political views. There was a time centuries ago when this might have been more about the religious beliefs of the people, but honestly it is an issue of Irish sovereignty and British claims to land. It happens that the majority of Brits were Protestant and the majority of Irish were Catholic. I think they are just jousting for the resources of the Ulster province.

Ath

Answer 10

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?" --Quentin Crisp

I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay their hands on everything they can get. –Napolean Bonaparte

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. --Anne Lamott

Christians, needless to say, utterly detest one another; they slander each other constantly with the vilest forms of abuse, and cannot come to any sort of agreement in their teaching. Each sect brands its own, fills the head of its own with deceitful nonsense. --Celsus (178 AD)

The Church says the Earth is flat. But I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the Moon. And I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church. --Magellan

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said 'Stop! don't do it!' 'Why shouldn't I?' he said. I said, 'Well, there's so much to live for!' He said, 'Like what?' I said, 'Well...are you religious or atheist?' He said, 'Religious.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?' He said, 'Christian.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?' He said, 'Protestant.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?' He said, 'Baptist!' I said, 'Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist church of god or Baptist church of the lord?' He said, 'Baptist church of god!' I said, 'Me too! Are you original Baptist church of god, or are you reformed Baptist church of god?' He said, 'Reformed Baptist church of god!' I said, 'Me too! Are you reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?' He said, 'Reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!' I said, 'Die, heretic scum,' and pushed him off. --Emo Phillips

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