Religious Independents in Northern Ireland: Origins, Attitudes, and Significance
The Northern Ireland problem is usually characterized as a sectarian conflict between the Protestant and Catholic communities. All other religious affiliations are either ignored or subordinated to these two major groupings. As a result, little attention has been devoted to the social and political...
| Published in: | Review of religious research |
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| Authors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer
1995
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| In: |
Review of religious research
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The Northern Ireland problem is usually characterized as a sectarian conflict between the Protestant and Catholic communities. All other religious affiliations are either ignored or subordinated to these two major groupings. As a result, little attention has been devoted to the social and political differences stemming from other forms of religious identification, notably religious independence, or those who claim no religious affiliation. Using the 1991 Northern Ireland Social Attitudes Survey, this paper provides recent empirical evidence to challenge this conventional wisdom. We conclude that religious identification in contemporary Northern Ireland is not simply a Catholic versus Protestant dichotomy. The analyses reveal a small but still significant group of religious independents who differ from the two communities not only in terms of a range of religious beliefs and practices, but also on abortion, sexual morality, partisanship, confidence in institutions, and the influence of religious leaders in politics. While the short-term significance of this group is negligible, its long-term significance may be substantial. |
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| ISSN: | 2211-4866 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of religious research
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3512071 |