Behind the Ethnic Marker: Religion and Social Identification in Northern Ireland

Behind the Ethnic Marker: Religion and Social Identification in Northern IrelandAuthor(s): Claire MitchellSource: Sociology of Religion, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Spring, 2005), pp. 3-21Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4153113 .

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Sociology of Religion 2005, 66:1 3-21

Behind The Ethnic Marker: Religion And

Social Identification In Northern Ireland

Claire Mitchell* Queen 's University Belfast

Reducing religion to a mere ethnic marker has stifled the debate about its social and political significance in Northern Ireland. This article puts forward a constructivist argument, which understands religion as a dynamic of personal and group identification, as the key to illuminating its social significance. Drawing on analysis of in-depth interviews it finds four main ways in which religion informs processes of social identification and community construction in Northern Ireland: where it acts as an identity marker; where religious rituals play a practical role, or religious ideas play a symbolic role, in the construction of community; and, where doctrine can legitimize oppositional social identifications. In fact, specifically religious structures and religious ideas remain socially significant beyond the confines of the most devout. Thus, rather than just marking out ethnic identities, this article argues that religion generally provides some substantive content to processes of categorization and social comparison in Northern Ireland.

Whilst nearly nine out of ten people in contemporary Northern Ireland select a Protestant or Catholic identification, common sense, as well as the literature, tells us that conflict has not primarily been about religion. Divisions, for most people, do not revolve around doctrinal disputes and people rarely cite theology as the basis of their political analyses. Thus it has become the dominant intellectual view that religion plays a negligible role in structuring social relationships. Religion is often said to function merely as a badge of ethnic difference (McGarry and O'Leary 1995; Clayton 1998)-a view that has been labelled an 'academic consensus' (Hayes and McAllister 1999). However, religion still provides the main signifier of communal membership in Northern Ireland, more so than nationalism or economic position. Therefore it is compelling to ask what meaning does this have? This article utilizes a constructivist approach to probe behind the religious labels and asks how religion may inform processes of identification and group categorization in Northern Ireland politics. It explores the

* Direct all correspondence to: Claire Mitchell, School of Sociology and Social Policy, Queen's University Belfast, College Park East, Belfast BT7 iNN, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Email: [email protected]. I would like to thank all of those interviewees who were willing to discuss these issues with me, as well as Tobias Theiler, Grace Davie and several anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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4 SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

variety of ways in which religious practices, ideas, doctrines, values and structures, help construct ideas about self and others in an uncertain and divided political situation. The article concludes that religion is not just a boundary marker, but that it often gives meaning to the boundary as well.

Northern Ireland provides an excellent case study for examining the relationship between religion and identification. Religion has overlapped with ethno-national, economic and cultural differences since the seventeenth centu- ry, providing institutional support, language, values, and often leadership to Catholic and Protestant groups. Moreover, the role of churches in structuring social life has led to high levels of physical and ideological segregation between communities. Whilst churches have often spoken out against violence, their main interest through conflict was to locate themselves in the political main- stream of their respective communities. In this context, it is unsurprising that the population of Northern Ireland rank extremely high along most indicators of religiosity. Nearly 90 per cent are affiliates (46 per cent are Protestants and 40 per cent Catholics according to the 2001 census) and 51 per cent are regular churchgoers.1 Three quarters believe in God and in heaven, 70 per cent pray at least once a month, 62 per cent believe in hell and 53 per cent in miracles.2 These fig- ures, however, do not tell us much about the social significance of religion.

The sections that follow present a social constructivist analysis of religious significance in Northern Ireland. This allows us to capture the overlap of individual religious beliefs and practices with social and political roles in a way that does not force a choice between the two, but rather opens up wider possibilities of how they give each other meaning.

RELIGION AND SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION

So, how might we capture the variety of ways in which religious ideas and structures help people make sense of the world? We need analytical tools that will help us to access processes of construction of meaning, how people understand themselves, others and their place in society. Social constructivism views identities and communities as neither fixed nor essential, but argues that individuals and groups are engaged in a constant process of identification (Brubaker and

Cooper 2000). The term identification does not imply that Protestants or Catholics in Northern Ireland have some kind of collective sameness that can be

opted into or out of. Rather, it is used to describe the social-psychological process of the construction of our self-images and perceptions of group memberships.

1 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (2002). 'Regular' consists of respondents who attend weekly and two or three times a month. All data comes from this survey, unless otherwise stated.

2 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (1998).



BEHIND THE ETHNIC MARKER 5

Identification is bound up with social categorization. To create a meaningful order for ourselves, we divide the social world into categories (Hogg and Abrams 1988). We then cognitively internalize these categories, acting and behaving as if they were intrinsically real (Cohen 1989). This is what Bourdieu (1990, 1991) means when he talks about the habitus-a culturally specific way of thinking and

doing. The habitus is assimilated into the unconscious, in embodied and entrenched perceptions and reactions, so that it becomes part of shared group understanding and a basis for social action. As we cognitively order social life into categories, we 'know' which categories we belong to and act accordingly. This leads to group formation.

But where do these categories come from? They are formed through social relationships and social structure. Our self-images are constituted in negotiation with others, through social comparison (Berger and Luckmann 1991; Hogg and Abrams 1988). It is only through recognising what one is not that a person constructs their own sense of self and belonging (Jenkins 1996). As such, difference and familiarity are crucial factors in the identification process and we tend to draw social boundaries accordingly (Barth 1969). The boundary very often becomes entangled with moral evaluations-that difference is threatening, or in some way worse (Douglas 1966).

Whilst one is not born with them, there are very good reasons why everyone develops certain types of identifications over time. To a large degree, existing institutional, socio-structural, socio-historical and socio-spatial contexts and relations have already selected what dimensions of our identity are going to be most important throughout our lives-whether this be gender, race, religion, nationality-and these form the bases of our most salient communal memberships (Cohen 1989; Jenkins 1996, 2000). We all of course have agency, but this operates in the context of practices and relationships that are already there and what has already been experienced. We find ourselves in situations at least as much as we choose them; there is at least as much reification of identity as the way we are, as there is renegotiation of boundaries. In this way, identification is a product of social and political action, as well as a basis for further action (Brubaker and Cooper 2000).

Religion plays a crucial role in the identification process. Firstly, religious affiliation often determines one's place in the social and political structure, and where this is the case, religious identifications become deeply embedded. This holds in Northern Ireland where Protestant and Catholic identifications impinge on almost every sphere of public life, from school selection to filling in employ- ment monitoring forms, from area of residence to choice of partner. These bina- ries have been further reinforced in recent years as legislation dealing with group rights is extended into ever more areas of public life, providing incentive for identification with one community or the other (Dixon 1997). The point is that Protestant and Catholic identifications in Northern Ireland still matter to one's life chances and place in society.




But religion often plays a much more significant role in social relationships than just providing group labels. In societies with significant religious presence or history, it can form a kind of cultural reservoir from which categorizations of self and other may be derived. Religious traditions provide a wealth of cultural data from different sorts of values, lifestyles, expected behavior and decorum to different architectural styles, religious paraphernalia, memorials and calendars of sacred events. Since individuals and groups are constantly engaged in a process of categorization of self and other, it is unsurprising that religion, which often forms an enormous part of childhood socialiation and daily life, should become part of the substance of these categorizations (Baston, Schoenrade and Ventis 1993).

Moreover, religious institutions strive to structure social life. In Northern Ireland churches have sought to give meaning to people's political experiences as well as organize social life and provide leadership. They have offered sanctuary and guidance in times of communal crisis; they have negotiated with politicians, gov- ernments and paramilitary organizations; they have acted as spokespeople for their communities seeming to articulate nationalist or unionist political views (Morrow, Birrell, Greer and O'Keefe 1991). Through this process churches seek to influence as many people as possible. Whilst the churches in Northern Ireland have generally sought to mediate rather than exacerbate political tensions, they are primarily interested in the maintenance of their own power and authority and are not neutral social actors. So, it is important to bear in mind how the religious institutional setting of political life helps structure social boundaries and their meanings.

Below, we examine in more depth how people in Northern Ireland draw on

religion to identify social difference, similarity, values, place, relation to power and so on in order to construct their identifications. The article turns now to a discussion of the methodological approach used to access these meanings.

METHODS

To analyse identifications one can look at how the world is interpreted, understood, experienced and (re)produced: in other words how reality is con- structed by different actors. The data consists of in-depth interviews with 35 indi- viduals3, additional informal discussions with interviewees and others, observation of a variety of religious events, visits to community centres and attendance at social events during 2000 and 2001 from which extensive field notes were made. The research was conducted as part of a wider project on religion and pol-

3 The sample included 18 Catholics and 17 Protestants. 8 Protestants were churchgoers and 9 were non-churchgoers. Of the Catholics, 9 attended mass, 9 did not. In total, 20 interviewees were under 45, 15 were over 45. The youngest was 18 and the oldest was 73. 12 were women. Both the Protestant and Catholic samples reflected a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds from the unemployed through to higher professional. The entire spectrum of political attitudes and party preferences was represented.




itics in Northern Ireland that also included analysis of recent survey material and a study of primary and secondary, academic, religious and political literature. Whilst these provide the context of the study, below, we concentrate on the in- depth interviews to elaborate on the process of identity construction. Thus the analysis is deep rather than wide. It is concerned with exploring the dynamics of

identity change through individuals' life stories rather than in providing a statis-

tically representative sample (Miller 2000). With regard to the interviews, Protestant and Catholic labels were self-

selected at the outset of interviews by participants and their specific meanings were thereafter probed to draw out nuances of belief and practice. Sampling was not random, but aimed to select participants from a diversity of backgrounds. Initial contacts were made with community leaders across Northern Ireland and using these leads, a snowballing technique was used to elicit further participants according to criteria of churchgoing, age and religious identification.4

The interviews were conducted in 2000 with disputes over Orange Order marches and the loyalist feuds in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 as a backdrop. They were conducted by a female interviewer with a Protestant

background from Northern Ireland. This was an advantage when speaking with some of the Protestant interviewees, many of whom assumed that the interviewer was in agreement with their views. However, with a small minority of Catholic interviewees there was some degree of discomfort, at least initially, as participants pointed out they had not discussed these matters with a Protestant before. In these cases, interviews actually lasted much longer and became quite frank, per- haps due to curiosity about the other.

The formal interviews lasted between one and three hours. The form of interview was episodic, which is a mixture of narrative and semi-structured forms of interviewing. Participants are invited to recount situations, episodes or experiences. These are followed with more pointed questions, to draw out interviewees subjective meanings (Flick 1998). The narrative aspect is designed to give the interviewee the freedom to develop their story without intrusion by the researcher (Wengraf 2001). Subsequent questions picked up elements in interviewees' own stories, and by asking them to expand, or accept or reject positions, teasing out their subjective definitions of faith, what role it plays in their life and political ideas. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim (Reissman 1993). Notes were made on the banter before and after the interviews and on perceived nonverbal cues to aid interpretation of the data.

4 Churchgoing was included to explore the impact of religious practice. Age was taken into account because there has been some generational secularization in Northern Ireland (Boal, Keane and Livingstone 1997). Whilst concern was also taken to represent a wide variety of social backgrounds and political preferences, it was nonetheless a priority not to hand- pick participants to gratify the researcher's prejudices. Thus, other than fulfilling these criteria, little or nothing of participants' religious or political attitudes was known.




The analysis examines how people talk about themselves and other people. It examines how stories mark out identities; how identities mark out differences; how differences define the 'other,' and how the 'other' helps structure the moral life of culture, group and individual (Plummer 1995). Narratives, or stories, allow us to see how individuals interpret reality and events, what is important to them and how they feel they fit into society. Through this lens, access is gained to a wide range of cultural knowledge as to what it is like to be a Catholic or Protestant in Northern Ireland. This data does not allow observation of how people interact and what they do (Flick 1998). What follows then is a contextualized analysis of how people construct reality-and the social roles of these constructions (Berger and Luckmann 1991).

As space is too limited below to allow room for more, small representative quotations have been used to demonstrate the frequency with which an idea is articulated. Speakers have been chosen in so far as they illustrate a common theme from the empirical data, rather than being selected to prove the point at hand. All names have been replaced, and occupations changed to similar.

Four dimensions of the relationship between religion and social identification

emerged from the data. This is not presented as an exhaustive list-rather, it is intended to highlight the usefulness of a constructivist approach in analysis of the social significance of religion. With a sample this size, it is impossible to quantify these trends, just as it is unwise to claim that these are the only ways in which reli-

gion matters in social life. Rather, this article seeks to suggest new ways in which the link between religion and politics in Northern Ireland can operate. Its aim is to introduce new questions into the debate and open the door for further empirical research that will probe for the meanings behind the religious labels.

RELIGION AS AN ETHNIC MARKER

We begin with the ethnic marker argument itself. This is where religion is used to mark out other, more secular, identifications. It is a nominal, rather than

substantively meaningful identification and form of community membership. Religion acts as an ethnic marker amongst those who claim a religious affili-

ation, but who neither practise nor believe. Niamh is a young professional from a large Catholic town. She says "I am a Catholic, but I don't believe in all that stuff." She says she does not believe in God, does not attend mass and maintains that she is not interested in any aspect of the church. However, she says that she would have her children christened into the Catholic church in order to get them into a Catholic school, claiming that this is for cultural rather than reli-

gious reasons. She does not want her children to be a minority in a state (and predominantly Protestant) school, but rather to learn Irish, play Gaelic sport and have a "confident identity." Thus the import of Catholicism for Niamh is that it is not Protestantism. She recognizes that a Catholic identification is socially mean-

ingful because it distinguishes the in-group with which she associates a sense of

belonging and confidence. However, apart from the institutional support of the




Catholic church through education, which we turn to in the next section, reli-

gion has little significance in and of itself. Often, a religious identification is held in a more reluctant way. Whilst

Niamh is enthusiastic about the merits of Catholic identity, others continue to affiliate because they feel they have no choice. Joe is a banker in his 30s from Belfast. Whilst he identifies as Catholic, he has no links with the church. He

presents himself as religiously agnostic and says he dislikes religious people, religious structures and the type of extreme Catholicism with which he was raised. In fact, Joe attends a self-help group, which he refers to as his church. He is also politically agnostic and maintains he is not interested in voting and does not identify with either nationalism or unionism.

However, despite his lack of interest in communal politics, Joe maintains a Catholic identification. He describes how having the label of Catholic has made a difference to his life because of the structure of Northern Ireland and that this has "angered him to the core." He describes being beaten up, not getting job interviews, losing a job and a subsequent court battle. The point for Joe is that, "unfor- tunately my life has been influenced by the fact that I am a Catholic, of course it has, without a question or a doubt." He goes on to explain that others will "seek out what [he is]" anyway. As such, he wonders if is it even possible to change one's religion and asks if it can be done by deed poll. The idea of changing religion seems unthinkable because communal membership has been interwoven with his experiences in life and of Protestants. It is a structurally real identification that has been thrust upon him. It informs social categorizations of inclusion and exclusion and influences his behavior. However whilst he has a sense of belonging to the Catholic community, there is no substantive religious content.

It is more accurate to say that a religious identification marks out a communal identification than a political affiliation. One can feel they belong to the Protestant or Catholic community without the accompanying ethnic politics. Simon is an interesting, if atypical, example. For him, a Protestant identification is also a relatively empty signifier that delineates in-group belonging. A Belfast company manager, non-churchgoer and a member of a nationalist political party, he says he feels Irish and is "probably a Protestant." Although he very occasional- ly attends the local Anglican church, he imagines that going to the Catholic church would be no more or less meaningful. However, he also says that if he went to the local Catholic church, "I would be making some kind of conscious decision to change who I was." During his student years he was on the fringes of the civil rights movement, but was not sure how far he was accepted by his Catholic coun- terparts. Throughout his narrative, Simon talks of his attempts to find a political cause, which have confused him because although he "would really like to con- tribute to [Irish] nationalism" he does not think he is welcomed. This is a weak, even reluctant, form of communal identity. Although Simon is a rebellious community member, a Protestant identification is still meaningful in that it has for him associations of acceptance/non-acceptance and inclusion/exclusion.




There are then individuals for whom religion plays only a nominal role in constructing a sense of self and of group membership. At least in this sample, they tend to be found amongst non-practising Catholics and Protestants and amongst those who are atheist, agnostic or non-committal in terms of religious beliefs. Reasons for this kind of identification include desires to integrate oneself into a community and express belonging. They can also be thrust upon people as they observe their experiences in life being mediated through group membership. However, these identifications do not involve any form of personal religious belief, ritual practice or institutional input. This is similar to Demerath's 'cultural religion,' which he defines as "an identification with a religious heritage without any religious participation or a sense of personal involvement per se" (2001:59). Religion is not about present conviction, but "continuity with gener- ations past and contrast with rival groups and identities" (Demerath 2000:136). In Northern Ireland and elsewhere, he argues, this qualifies as a distinct type of religion-theologically weak but socially important.

RELIGIOUS RITUAL AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

Where cultural religion begins to gain more significant religious content, is where churches help structure daily life. In these cases, religion does not just flag identity, but is substantively integrated into a sense of communal belonging. When people attend church services and use the church for other social activities, group identity can be reinforced. This echoes Durkheim's (1915) suggestion that ritual and participation help hold the organization of society together. However, this process should not be viewed in purely functionalist terms. It also demonstrates the constructivist claim that powerful social institutions and practices make belonging to some groups more publicly meaningful than others and that this in turn reproduces certain forms of social relationships.

Invariably, when one discusses religion and structure, the focus shifts to the Catholic church. This is because Catholics make more use of the church, firstly, in attending religious services and secondly, in organising daily life, for example through education. Although there are many alternative political and cultural focal points for communities today, the church continues to play a strong com-

munity-building role (Morrow et al 1991). Churchgoing amongst Catholics is much higher than Protestants, with 72 per cent of the former compared to 43 per cent of the latter attending regularly. Despite some decline over the last ten years, this remains amongst the highest in Europe. As Crilly points out (1998:41) "the sense of church is at the core of experience of Catholic community [...] Religion is not just a private affair, but is rooted in experience of a faith community." The physical act of churchgoing reinforces a sense of communal belonging.

Barry is a trainee solicitor from a predominantly Catholic town in Northern Ireland. He describes attending mass as a habit which is "more social than anything," and when asked if he did any church-related activities, he replies "going




to the pub!" Vinny, a young Catholic in the entertainment industry, says that

attending mass is "like smoking a cigarette or having a pint-it's the same kind of repetitive action." Moreover he attends because it "clears [his] head" and,

because we usually go for a drink on a Sunday, straight after mass, me and my da, and meet my brother and leave my ma to cook the dinner. But we go to mass, and my brother in law, we would meet him every Sunday at the bottom of the comer before we go into mass, to get the gossip and all from home.

Vinny describes the facets of his personal faith: he feels that one does not have to go to mass to have faith, he can also pray to God when he is driving to work for example. He describes how he did not attend mass when he spent a sum- mer in America: once he went because of a personal crisis, but left in the middle as the sermon was too long. So although Vinny says faith plays a big role in his life, going to mass is not principally how he expresses this. Yet he still goes every week. This leads us to suggest that, as he indicates himself, going to mass plays a more significant social role than spiritual role. These Sunday rituals are a vital

aspect of communal life, for they provide a meeting point and act as a communi-

ty-maintaining exercise. They also exclude Protestants, as Catholics look over the boundary and attribute different qualities to the 'other'. Vinny later talks about how he sees Protestants going to church and speculates that their form of

religious practice, as well as their character, seems different and more inflexible than Catholics. Identity and community then are practically reinforced by Catholic rituals and behavior. This physical separation between Catholics and Protestants even within relatively small towns and villages further enhances cat-

egorization and social comparison. This is similar to the naturalized way of thinking and doing of Bourdieu's habitus.

A young Catholic couple from a Protestant town, David and Karen, highlight the importance of religious group membership extremely well as they discuss their decision to marry in the Catholic church and later, to prepare their children for the sacrament of Holy Communion. These have not been easy choices for them, because although they say that faith is very important to them, neither attends mass nor adheres to traditional Catholic theology. In fact they describe their personal belief system as "Murphyism," in Karen's words, "based on our experiences and our questions." However, Karen feels they chose to get married in the Catholic church because to do otherwise would have been to make a political statement. On the topic of the children's christening and communion, David expresses the importance of religious group, as distinguished from personal beliefs. He argues that it is important, especially in Northern Ireland, for people to understand where they belong. Karen says that she will go to mass more with her daughter so she knows what being a Catholic is all about. The transmission of these codes of belonging to their children is important to them because religious group membership has made a difference to their lives, both positively and negatively. They feel part of a vibrant and confident cultural community, but also




present themselves as somewhat "uncomfortable" in a majority unionist state. In this case religion is far from an empty signifier. 'Murphyism' is dissimilar to Bellah's (1985) individualist 'Sheilaism,' because David and Karen feel that Catholic structures are needed in order to be a full member of the Catholic community. Coming into contact with these structures enhances familiarity with religious symbols, rituals, values and norms. In-group membership is thus, at least partially, predicated on religious codes. These codes are not theologically informed, but they are very much rooted in the practice and organization of the faith community.

Moreover, churches are powerful agencies in society, not just friendly facili- tators of cultural identity for anyone who wants it. The Catholic church is an

organization with beliefs, goals and strategies and clear ideas on the difference between right and wrong. Presently in a conservative phase, it is an organization with a mission, and those who come into contact with it, or seek to utilize its structures, do so within the bounded space of official church discourse and meaning (Fulton 1991). Although people are sophisticated enough not to agree with

everything the church may say context is never insignificant. As a social life is often practised within religious structures, groups are not just physically segregat- ed but in-group and out-group religious membership is also imbued with substantive religious categorizations. Whilst they may lack reference to the supernatural, these kinds of identifications nonetheless have religious content. For Catholics it

keeps salient ideas of difference with Protestant practices of faith and thus Protestants ("they wear hats to church and are very formal; we wear casual clothes and are very laid-back.") It can also create the idea that our group shares a similar experience and their group is, at best, unable to understand our situation, and at worst, the source of our hardship.

In this way, religious practice in Northern Ireland is more than a means of

marking communal boundaries. This has particularly salient implications for identification amongst the still high numbers of those who practise, thereby rit-

ualising practice and acting out belonging. It is also particularly significant for Catholics, amongst whom there is more religious participation and more institutional religious involvement in daily life.

RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

Religion also operates, in Cohen's (1989) terms, in the symbolic construction of identity and community. It acts as a form of ideology where understandings of self, other and place are structured into a system of ideas or concepts, from which identities are formed and social action conceived. Fulton (2002) describes these as 'relational' religious beliefs. This draws on Weber's (1905) idea of the content of religion being woven into interpretations of the changing social world. It is also informed by Wright's (1973) excellent analysis of 'Protestant ideology. Whilst Weber and Wright both apply these ideas to Protestants with strong reli-




gious beliefs, ideology is different from theology. It is used here to refer to a system of concepts, informed by religious ideas but which are not concerned with answering 'ultimate questions' or related to the divine. Ideology is also different from the community-building dimension of religion. Whilst it is also drawn upon to construct categorizations of self and other, it is primarily informed by religious doctrines rather than religious practices. Thus, it refers to the imagination or cognitive construction of community rather than the performance or ritualization of community (although these of course are often related).

Consider Victoria, a young Protestant mother from a deprived part of Belfast. Victoria was sent to Sunday school as a child, but now does not attend church. She rejects a lot of her traditional Presbyterian upbringing, has no time for "fire and brimstone preachers" and was once married to a Catholic from Germany. Victoria, whilst secular and socialist in her political views, has rather fixed ideas about the consequences of religion for people's lives. She feels that she has more social freedom as a result of her religion, especially as a woman. For her, Protestantism is "a way of life" and "a personal choice." Constant in her self-presentation is her inde- pendence and her right to think for herself. She talks about the power of the Catholic church and sees her Catholic friends as having a lot more pressure and guilt about their religion. She speaks of their "strictness" and indoctrination in Catholic schools. So Victoria, although she sees herself as non-religious, categorizes her Protestant culture as a source of freedom, as opposed to her Catholic contem- poraries, who she feels are still "driven" in some way by the Catholic church. This forms part of a common-sense understanding of what Catholics are like. It also has social consequences, for example when Victoria describes her knee-jerk reaction not to let her son be baptized into the Catholic church.

Religion infuses the ideas of other non-churchgoing Protestants (see also Bruce 1994). Phillip, in his 20s, is from a suburban Protestant town. Whilst he had a very religious upbringing, he no longer attends church and says he has no religion. Phillip says that Catholics seem to "have such fear about things" and attributes this to the role of priests. This is juxtaposed with his self-presentation of independent reasoning. When asked "what do you associate with being a Protestant?" non-churchgoing Robert says, "well, I think you are much freer." These categories of liberty versus slavery have clear religious roots in Protestant teaching of freedom of thought and the authoritarianism of the Catholic church. Yet people with no active religious involvement or commitment use these categories to understand social relationships. This is not a position argued theologically, but from Protestants' observations of the ways in which Catholics seem different to them. In their strong form, there is a clear relationship between religious ideology and politics, where Catholics are seen as unfree and politically duped. In their weaker form, such as with Victoria, they are more compartmentalized- affecting some social relationships but not her overall political analysis.

Jim's story illuminates how religion symbolically constructs community. Jim is a young loyalist from Belfast. His father was a Pentecostalist and whilst he flirt-




ed with Protestant religion as a teenager, Jim says he was a troublemaker and never made a serious commitment. He does not go to church and describes himself as more religiously moderate and open-minded than he used to be. Politically too, he describes himself as moderating, having moved away from support of the hard-line rather religious DUP. However, Protestant ideology continues to per- meate Jim's ideas of self, others and place.

Given his background, Jim did not meet many Catholics as he was growing up and says that it is only now in his job that he has contact. He says that he has always had problems with Jesuits, suspecting that they had political motivations, but now works with Jesuit priests and has been surprised because he has found them to be very amenable. He even considers some as friends. However, negative perceptions of the political situation for Protestants in Northern Ireland draw him back into opposition. Whilst he thinks there is a need for political compro- mise, he feels that with the Good Friday Agreement Protestants are losing more than they expected. He sees the Catholic community as united and rising in strength, and the Protestant community as fragmented and lost.

It is in this context of political nervousness that he describes himself as still having, in his words, the "triggers of anti-Catholicism." Even though he is not a practising Protestant and despite his new-found relationships with Catholics, political fears cause him to rebound back into religious ideas about the other. In this context, he finds himself reverting to traditional categories, suspecting that the Catholic church has sinister motives, that it is acting as a political agency and promoting Catholic strength. He describes his continuing struggle in building personal relationships with Catholics, not least his Jesuit colleagues, and his con- fusion about their intentions. In short, Jim is actively renegotiating his religious identification, struggling to separate positive individual relationships from a wider negative analysis of his place within political structures and his group's lack of power. However, the seemingly zero-sum structure of communal politics in Northern Ireland makes Jim backtrack on some of his openness. The ideological formulation of anti-Catholicism is then triggered when it seems to make sense of structural conditions. As argued above, the constraints of structure often prohib- it us from freely transforming our identifications.

The cases cited here concern Protestants, however there is evidence that similar ideological categorizations exist amongst Catholics as well. In Millar's (1999) work for example, republican interviewees question whether Protestants have a conscience, and speak of their "ingrained wickedness." This is opposed to Catholics, whom they say have been brought up with a moral theology and know what sin is (1999:202-4, 303). Overall though, because of the stronger emphasis on personal theology within Protestantism, as opposed to liturgy or practice in Catholicism, religion as ideology is more likely to be found amongst the former

group. Interestingly, most practising Catholic interviewees distanced themselves from the religious fervor they associated with Protestants. This might be charac- terized as anti-Protestant ideology, comparable to the anti-Catholicism that Jim




articulates. The difference is that it is framed in opposition to religious ideas; the religio-political dimension of Protestantism acts as the key concept against which to define Catholic identity and 'normality.'

In sum, religion manifests itself as a form of ideology in Northern Ireland where religious concepts are mediated through relationships and perceptions of social structure in the present, and are used to categorize and evaluate Protestant and Catholic group characteristics, inform identity and social action. This trend is most pronounced amongst those familiar with religious concepts. This can be

gained from childhood socialization and can persist at the level of common-sense knowledge, independent of religious practice or belief in the present. Over time though, ideology unsupported by religious structure and participation will become less coherent. However, as Northern Ireland is still a rather religious society, as indicated by its high levels of affiliation, practice and belief, it is unlikely that this dimension of division will disappear any time soon. Furthermore, we find the religious dimensions of ideology ebbing and flowing in relation to socio- economic structural conditions. In times of communal difficulty or crisis, the role of religion in the symbolic construction of community can be more intense.

THEOLOGY AND IDENTITY

One of the most obvious ways in which religion is entangled with social identification is theology. This has been left to last because although it can be the most dramatic manifestation, it is not actually the most pervasive social role of religion in Northern Ireland. Generally, theology is thought to be politically salient only for a minority of Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists (Rose 1971; McAllister 1982; Hickey 1984). This author agrees with that analysis, but is at pains to point out some unexpected expressions of this.

First, we need to be careful when we speak of the theological dimensions of conflict in Northern Ireland. Too often, commentators theorize theology as something fixed that functions as the basis for action. Moreover, it is imperative to avoid the assumption that theology produces action without social corrobora- tion. Of course there is a strong relationship between beliefs and action. But theology is open to interpretation. More significantly, individuals mediate theological beliefs through their own experiences in life and of politics.

The specific inter-relations of Protestant theology and unionism in Northern Ireland have been well documented, and do not need much reiteration here (Hickey 1984; Bruce 1986, 1994; Todd 1987; Akenson 1992; Brewer 1998). Briefly, these include the belief that Northern Ireland is a special land set apart by God; that Ulster Protestants are a 'chosen people' akin to the Israelites; that the Catholic church is an authoritarian political agency, antithetical to freedom; that Protestantism represents salvation and light in opposition to the damnation and darkness of Catholicism. Politically these can translate into opposition to a priest-ridden' united Ireland, lack of trust in Catholics' political integrity and an




exclusive focus on the 'Protestant people.' It is estimated that about one quarter of the Protestant population of Northern Ireland may subscribe to this kind of political theology.3 Having said this, it is more important to explore the dynamics by which theology and identification are entangled, than to simply reproduce a caricature of this religio-political position.

Helen is in her early 40s, works in the public sector and lives in a predominantly Protestant town. She used to be a nominal Presbyterian but says she was more of a "party animal" and not very committed. Recently, however, she has become a born-again Christian and regularly attends a small fundamentalist church. Politically too, her position has shifted-from being a member of the moderate unionist UUP to supporting the hard-line unionist DUP. She is vehe- mently opposed to the Good Friday Agreement and concentrates on Protestant loss in contemporary Northern Ireland. Fears emanate from her perceptions of the growing strength of Catholic community, their high levels of mass attendance and "aggressive Irish nationalism." Her perception of Protestant loss, con- firms for Helen, that these are the "end times." As such, she trusts God to save her, saying,

the thing that always sticks in my mind is what the Lord says, 'the truth is mine, and I will repay,' and I really do hold on to that because I do believe that ultimately he will stop it this time. Not just the Agreement just generally [immoral] society.

The biblical book of Revelation speaks of the final days of the world and the trials that the faithful will be subjected to, but ends with judgement and salvation. Those Protestant interviewees who believed in biblical inerrancy and who perceived wider moral decay as an indication that the end of the world is near described the Agreement as another 'sign of the times.' One religiously conservative Protestant man says the only thing that can salvage the political situation after the Agreement is "divine intervention." In these cases religious identifications are drawing on ideas of the supernatural to explain, and provide reassurance in, a political situation people feel powerless to change. Our tendency as social beings to categorize between them and us is intensified by reference to theology. Theology provides a resource to identify the oppressor, to justify the negative values attributed to the out-group and to underline the need for in-group solidarity in the face of such evil.

Not all those with strong religious beliefs, however, are politically oppositional. In some instances, they can be held in such a way that allows for political

5 Boal, Keane and Livingstone (1997) found that half of Belfast's Protestant churchgoers were theologically conservative and based on this, estimate that 25% of the overall Protestant population subscribes to these ideas. Bruce (1986) puts this figure at around 30%, ECONI (1995) at 33%.




inclusion. This is still marginal within the wider community. Amongst inclusive

evangelical Protestants we find theology being interpreted by individuals as

requiring political integration and social activism. James is an Anglican minister in his 30s, working in a predominantly Protestant town. He is a pro-Agreement unionist, describes himself as a bridge-builder and when talking about religion, uses language like integration, inclusion and accommodation. Jordan (2001), Ganiel (2002) and Mitchell (2003) find similar trends of Protestants with strong religious beliefs articulating inclusion and offering theological arguments of

heavenly rather than earthly citizenship as a means of transcending political division in Northern Ireland.

Theology is likely to be politically salient only to the identifications of believers, particularly Protestants, in Northern Ireland. There is little evidence that theological beliefs are related to social and political identity for Catholics, amongst whom, as we have seen, other dimensions of religious identification are more significant. It is of vital importance to note, however, that people's theolo-

gies do not represent a fixed way of looking at the world. Theological aspects of

religious identification also respond to social and political experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

Religion in Northern Ireland is a crucial component of social identification and community construction. To a large extent, the importance of religion as a communal marker is more or less given. 'Catholic' and 'Protestant' are identifications that are thrust upon people from an early age, as they learn where they are accepted or not accepted, welcomed or treated with suspicion. These communal memberships are important in determining school choice, residence, cultural and sporting activities, and access to power and resources. 'Protestant' and 'Catholic' group memberships are deeply embedded in existing social structures. Thus, at this nominal level, religious identifications are very difficult to renego- tiate in Northern Ireland. However, it does not follow that there is anything nec- essarily religious about this other than the nametags. That is, until we begin to probe behind the labels. For many more people, there are a variety of substantively religious overtones to their social identifications, even amongst some who do not go to church or see themselves as religious.

For the still large number of churchgoing Catholics, ritual and religious practice reinforce a sense of communal belonging, enhancing physical and cognitive separation between groups. Many non-churchgoing Catholics understand that church structures are still needed to be a full member of the community and thus retain a degree of contact. Whilst they may be 'cafeteria Catholics,' picking and choosing which aspects of church teaching are most meaningful for them, nonetheless, masses, priests and sacraments continue to be involved in the transmission of communal identity. In this context it is hardly surprising that religion occupies such an important place in the habitus of Catholics in Northern




Ireland. Separate religious practices also create a space in which to imagine other groups' difference.

For many Protestants, it is more likely to be religiously informed concepts and ideas, rather than religious practices, which construct categorizations of self and other. This holds even for many who are no longer religiously active nor have a strong faith. Whilst many of these Protestants are invisible in conven- tional measures of religiosity, the concepts they use to understand social life are not just morally, but also pseudo-theologically, charged. This is because these interpretations have often made sense of structural conditions, and we have seen above the difficulty in transcending these religious ideas when they continue to make sense of many Protestants' situation in Northern Ireland. For others again, theological conviction and doctrine provide a further layer of cultural information, this time with a sacred stamp of authority, that can be used to establish and evaluate one's social place vis-A-vis other groups. Whilst more research needs to be done to quantify these trends, it is clear that religion is tied into conflict in Northern Ireland in a variety of complex cultural and structural ways.

So, rather than just marking out identities, religion generally provides some substantive content to processes of social categorization and comparison in Northern Ireland. Whilst this is certainly a form of social religion that moves beyond the confines of individual religiosity, it is not simply civil religion, where the group worships its own groupness without reference to the sacred. This builds upon and pushes further Demerath's notion of cultural religion, adding more reli-

gious content as specifically religious structures and religious ideas remain socially significant beyond the confines of the most devout. It is an approach that could be fruitfully utilized to analyze religion in other modern societies. Since all societies harbor conflicts at one level or another, religion may play a role in in-group and out-group categorization in a wide variety of cases. How this operates, and to what extent, will depend upon the historical relationships between religion and social structures and upon how familiar most people are with the religious terrain in the present.

Where there is some history of religious entanglement with social structures, familiar patterns of religious discourse and behavior can be tapped into in con-

temporary social and political conflicts. These conflicts might be between com-

peting ethnic groups within a society, groups struggling for cultural or political autonomy, host societies and immigrants, societies versus an external threat, or

simply by social groups dealing with rapid change. From ethno-religious conflicts in eastern Europe and Asia, to immigration of religious minorities into the

European Union, to American officials' prayer meetings about foreign policy, the 'other' is a constant feature of social and political life and is often religiously iden- tifiable. In these situations, religious ideas and in some cases rituals often become

part of social categorizations, even for the non-religiously committed. Social groups need to have at least some familiarity with the religious terrain

for this process to happen however. Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates




of religious belonging and practice in Europe, therefore it may be unsurprising that religious discourse still resonates for the nominally affiliated. Religious ideas and practices will not form part of social identification in the absence of cues and memories (Hervieu- L6ger 2000). But these cues are more widespread than one

might think. Where churches are involved in marking the life cycle, organizing social activities or engaging in voluntary charitable work, religious meanings are diffused into public consciousness. Where religious agencies continue to be involved in education, codes of group membership are transmitted through the curriculum and other subtle signs and symbols. The resistance of religious beliefs to secularization is well documented. These processes are at work even in so- called 'post-Christian' European societies (Davie 2000). When the inevitability of both latent and violent social and political conflicts is added into the equa- tion, increasing the tendency to identify in-groups and out-groups, it seems likely that religion will play a role in social categorization in a great many contexts for the foreseeable future.

Too often religious dimensions of identity are written off merely as ethnicity. This is a generalization that fails to recognize the dynamic relationships between religion and politics. In order to avoid such epiphonationalism, sociologists of religion need to ask probing questions about the substantive religious content of group identities. Certainly, further empirical work is needed to investigate this in a range of different contexts. The questions raised here are important because as we move to a world where religion is becoming increasingly publicly significant, we need a better understanding of its relationship to social identity and its impact on political action.

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Documents

Behind the Ethnic Marker: Religion and Social Identification in Northern Ireland