Fair Employment and Religion in Northern Ireland: An Overview

Abstract

Unlike many of the issues raised during the Northern Ireland Civil Rights campaign of the late 1960s, employment discrimination has remained high on the political agenda, leading to two major pieces of legislation, in 1976 and 1989. Briefly examines the background to the claim of religious discrimination against Catholics, before going on to review analyses of the 1971 and 1981 censuses, the main statistical source on patterns of employment in Northern Ireland, which confirm that there are significant differentials in the socio‐economic profiles of the Catholic and Protestant communities. In addition, discusses the monitoring provisions of the 1989 Fair Employment Act and points to some current debates on how the future effectiveness of the Act should be assessed.

Citation

Gallagher, T. (1992), "Fair Employment and Religion in Northern Ireland: An Overview", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 13 No. 6, pp. 16-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000000907