The Geography of Conflict and Death in Belfast, Northern Ireland Author(s): Victor Mesev, Peter Shirlow and Joni Downs Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 99, No. 5, Geographies of Peace and Armed Conflict (Dec., 2009), pp. 893-903 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20621258 Accessed: 07-05-2019 21:30 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Association of American Geographers, Taylor & Francis, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Annals of the Association of American Geographers This content downloaded from 37.219.222.99 on Tue, 07 May 2019 21:30:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Geography of Conflict and Death in Belfast, Northern Ireland Victor Mesev,* Peter Shirlow,* and Joni Downs* ^Department ofGeography, The Florida State University tSchool ofLaw, Queens University, Belfast ^Department of Geography, University of South Florida The conflict known as the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland began during the late 1960s and is defined by political and ethno-sectarian violence between state, pro-state, and anti-state forces- Reasons for the conflict are contested and complicated by social, religious, political, and cultural disputes, with much of the debate concerning the victims of violence hardened by competing propaganda-conditioning perspectives. This article introduces a database holding information on the location of individual fatalities connected with the contemporary Irish conflict. For each victim, it includes a demographic profile, home address, manner of death, and the organization responsible. Employing geographic information system (GIS) techniques, the database is used to measure, map, and analyze the spatial distribution of conflict-related deaths between 1966 and 2007 across Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, with respect to levels of segregation, social and economic deprivation, and interfacing. The GIS analysis includes a kernel density estimator designed to generate smooth intensity surfaces of the conflict-related deaths by both incident and home locations. Neighborhoods with high-intensity surfaces of deaths were those with the highest levels of segregation (>90 percent Catholic or Protestant) and deprivation, and they were located near physical barriers, the so-called peacelines, between predominantly Catholic and predominantly Protestant communities. Finally, despite the onset of peace and the formation of a power-sharing and devolved administration (the Northern Ireland Assembly), disagreements remain over the responsibility and "commemoration" of victims, sentiments that still uphold division and atavistic attitudes between spatially divided Catholic and Protestant populations. Key Words: Belfast, conflict, deaths, Northern Ireland, paramilitary, segregation. mmmin?mft cgis) imm^m^m, mmmRi9ee^2oo7mm^it^mnn^ mis, ^??w?ij*fWM7f^^ ^mmft&fM^mmizm mt:, itsmmmA, ?SM* El conflicto de Irlanda del Norte, tambien conocido como conflicto de "Los Lios," empez? a finales de los 1960s, y se le define en terminos de violencia politica y etno-sectaria entre fuerzas estatales, pro-estatales y anti-estatales. Las razones del conflicto son debatidas y complicadas a la luz de disputas sociales, religiosas, politicas y culturales, en las que gran parte de la discusi?n se concentra en las victimas de una violencia endurecida por la competencia entre perspectivas condicionadas por la propaganda. Este articulo presenta una base de datos con informaci?n sobre la localizaci?n de muertes individuales conectadas con el conflicto irland?s contempor?neo. Por cada victima, la informaci?n incluye un perfil demogr?fico, direcci?n residencial, modo de muerte y organizaci?n responsable. Por medio de tecnicas de los sistemas de informaci?n geogr?fica (SIG), la base de datos se utiliza para medir, cartografiar y analizar la distribuci?n espacial de muertes relacionadas con el conflicto entre 1966 Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 99(5) 2009, pp. 893-903 ? 2009 by Association of American Geographers Initial submission, September 2008; revised submission, February 2009; final acceptance, April 2009 Published by Taylor & Francis, LLC. This content downloaded from 37.219.222.99 on Tue, 07 May 2019 21:30:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Mesev, Shirlow, and Downs y 2007 en Belfast, capital de Irlanda del Norte, con respecto a los niveles de segregaci?n, privaci?n social y econ?mica, y proximidad a las barreras fisicas que separan comunidades de diferente religion. El an?lisis del SIG incluye un estimador de la densidad kernel, disenado para generar superficies de intensidad pareja de muertes relacionadas con el conflicto en localizaciones fortuitas y en el lugar de residencia. Los vecindarios con superficies de alta intensidad de muertes se corresponden con los que tienen altos niveles de segregaci?n (>90 por ciento de cat?licos o protestantes) y privaci?n, y localizados cerca de barreras fisicas, las llamadas lineas de paz, situadas entre comunidades predominantemente cat?licas y comunidades predominantemente protestantes. Finalmente, pese a la implantaci?n de la paz y la formaci?n de una administraci?n de poder compartido y restituido (la Asamblea de Irlanda del Norte), todavia subsisten desacuerdos en cuanto a la responsabilidad y "conmemoraci?n" de victimas, sentimientos que prolongan la division y actitudes at?vicas entre las poblaciones cat?licas y protestantes espacialmente separadas. Palabras clave: Belfast, conflicto, muertes, Irlanda del Norte, paramilitar, segregaci?n. Since the 1960s the conflict in Northern Ireland such debates on the Northern Irish conflict have tra has resulted in over 3,600 deaths, the maiming ditionally lacked rigorous quantitative methodologies of at least 30,000 people, and the displacement with which to measure and map violence. This is not to of tens of thousands due to intimidation and political say that a conventional narrative approach lacks merit, violence, which in turn has furthered residential segre but instead that a statistical approach can also be used gation along ethno-religious boundaries. This conflict to validate significance and, in so doing, challenge pro in Northern Ireland, commonly called the "Troubles," paganda attached to the social messages that emerge is the result of confrontation among three key sets of concerning conflict (McDowell 2008). antagonists: the British state, which, through the use of The measurement and mapping of deaths by religion force, aimed to maintain the majority's desire to remain can assist a spatially sensitive analysis of inter- and in within the United Kingdom; Irish Republicans, notably tracommunity violence that is not always reproducible the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who sought to unite in current debates concerning sectarian violence and Ireland through physical force; and the loyalist paramil fatalities (cf. Schellenberg 1977; Murray 1982; Poole itaries, such as the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster 1983; Douglas and Shirlow 1998; McPeake 1998). The Freedom Fighters, who as pro-state paramilitaries uti analysis presented in this article utilizes a unique, spa lized violence to maintain the constitutional link with tially configured database that documents every known Britain. conflict-related death that occurred in Belfast, the cap To the world at large, the long-standing North ital city of Northern Ireland, during the Troubles. The ern Irish "problem" represents hatred and conflict database contains individual records of victims, includ between Catholics and Protestants. Indeed, despite ing their demographic profile, home address, where high-profile media attention on the ideological motiva they were killed, and the organization responsible. tions for violence by Catholics associated with republi Geographic information systems (GIS) are used to an can paramilitaries, Protestants associated with loyalist alyze the database to complete the following objec paramilitaries, and the British state, the vast majority of tives: (1) explore temporal trends in conflict-related victims were unarmed civilians (Shirlow and Murtagh deaths in terms of both victim groups and responsi 2006). To try to explain the continued political friction ble party; (2) identify overall patterns and which areas more fully demands appreciation of the multifaceted were most impacted by the conflict; and (3) charac tangle of cross-community and within-community dis terize spatial patterns of deaths specific to particular putes, as well as during the postconflict period, the victim groups and relate these spatial patterns to so "commemoration" and "symbolism" of conflict, and cioeconomic characteristics of affected areas to identify the definition and legacy of victims and "victimhood" which types of neighborhoods were disproportionally af (Cosgrove and Daniels 1988; Verdery 1999; Aughey fected by the conflict. These objectives are designed to 2005; McEvoy 2007). This article will touch on some help unravel the