Troubled Geographies: Two centuries of religious division in Ireland

从爱尔兰人口普查中获得的宗教数据为我们提供了一个独特的机会，可以研究宗教与社会关系的长期地理变化，在这个国家，宗教的影响一直很深远。我们很幸运，ESRC已经资助了爱尔兰人口普查数据的数字化，南北分区后，在爱尔兰历史统计数据库的形式。这一现有资源是该项目的核心，因为它告诉我们宗教与广泛的社会经济指标之间的关系。将此与当代人口普查相结合，提供了足够的数据，让我们分析从19世纪中叶到现在的这段时期。我们将在其中添加一个地理信息系统，使我们能够绘制这些数据并探索它们所包含的空间和时空模式。在ESRC研究方法项目的资助下，Gregory和Ell博士开发了“区域插值”技术，使我们能够使用标准化的数据来探索随时间的变化。这使我们能够探索时空变化的详细模式，而无需诉诸于高度聚集的单位，如县。为了补充这些方法论上的创新方法，我们还将使用传统叙事来添加有关特定地点和主题的细节。这将由我们最近的JISC资助，这是数字化范围广泛的期刊，专著和其他材料有关的爱尔兰研究，并由两个以前的AHRC资助，数字化爱尔兰议会文件。这些资源为我们提供了获取爱尔兰岛及其组成地区资料的无与伦比的途径。因此，地理信息系统使我们能够识别宗教身份变化模式的广泛故事，而叙事使我们能够更详细地讲述特定地点的特定故事。我们将探讨两个关键主题。第一部分关注的是从19世纪中期到现在，爱尔兰岛的宗教与身份、社区、福利和繁荣之间的长期关系。自1861年以来，每次人口普查都提供有关宗教派别的信息。我们还将包括来自1834年公共教育委员会的信息，它提供了一些关于19世纪40年代末饥荒之前时期的宗教信息。我们将以此来探讨宗教认同与年龄、性别、阶级、语言、移民、健康、教育、社会和经济福利等因素之间不断变化的关系。这使我们能够研究宗教团体与社会和经济边缘化、社会资本的发展、社会一体化和健康结果之间的空间、人口和文化关系。我们可以探索的一个特别方面是，这些变化在多大程度上是对内战、分裂、麻烦的开始和饥荒等冲击的突然反应，还是它们是更渐进的长期变化。除了天主教、爱尔兰教会和长老会，我们还将探讨更多的小新教教派、犹太教徒和最近移民群体的宗教。我们的第二个相关主题是通过网格正方形数据的可用性来实现的，网格正方形数据使我们能够更详细地探索北爱尔兰在动乱时期宗教与社会之间的联系。除了上述主题，我们还将探讨宗教、社会和杀戮之间的关系，以及这些关系从20世纪60年代末到21世纪初是如何变化的。我们将通过期刊文章和演讲向学术观众传播。还有更广泛的对爱尔兰感兴趣的读者，包括社区领袖、记者、家族历史学家和非专业研究人员。我们将通过我们的电子地图集和当代的纸质版本来研究这些。

The availability of data on religion from the Irish censuses provides us with a unique opportunity to study long-term geographical change in the relationship between religion and society in a country where the impact of religion has been profound. We are fortunate that the ESRC has already funded the digitisation of Irish census data, North and South after Partition, in the form of the Database of Irish Historical Statistics. This existing resource is central to the project as it tells us about the relationship between religion and a broad range of socio-economic indicators. Combining this with contemporary censuses provides enough data to let us analyse the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We will add a GIS to it to allow us to map these data and explore the spatial and spatio-temporal patterns that they contain. Under a grant to the ESRC's Research Method's Programme Drs Gregory & Ell developed 'areal interpolation' techniques that allow us to explore change over time using data standardised onto a single set of administrative boundaries. This allows us to explore detailed patterns of spatio-temporal change without resorting to highly aggregate units such as counties. To complement these methodologically innovative approaches we will also use traditional narratives to add detail about specific places and themes. This will be assisted by our recent JISC grant that is digitising a wide range of journals, monographs and other material related to Irish studies, and by two previous AHRC grants that digitised Irish parliamentary papers. These resources provide us with unrivalled access to material on the island of Ireland and its constituent places. Thus, the GIS allows us to identify the broad stories of the changing patterns of religious identity, while the narrative allows us to tell specific stories about specific places in more detail. We will be exploring two key topics. The first is concerned with the long-term relationship between religion and identity, community, welfare and prosperity over the island of Ireland from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Every census since 1861 provides information on religious denominations. We will also include information from the 1834 Commissioners of Public Instruction which provides some information on religion in the period prior to the Famine of the late 1840s. We will use this to explore the changing relationship between religious identity and factors such as age, gender, class, language, migration, health, education, and social and economic welfare. This allows us to research the spatial, demographic and cultural relationships between religious groups and social and economic marginalisation, the development of social capital, social integration, and health outcomes. One particular aspect that we can explore is the extent to which changes in these have been sudden responses to shocks such as the Civil War and Partition, the start of the Troubles, and the Famine, or whether they have been more gradual long-term changes. In addition to Catholics, Church or Ireland, and Presbyterians, we will also explore more minor Protestant denominations, Jews, and the religions of recent immigrant groups. Our second, related topic is enabled by the availability of grid square data which allows us to explore the connections between religion and society in more detail for Northern Ireland over the period of the Troubles. In addition to the themes described above, we will also explore the relationship between religion, society, and killings during the Troubles, and how these changed from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. We will disseminate to an academic audience using journal articles and presentations. There is also a much broader audience with an interest in Ireland including community leaders, journalists, family historians and lay researchers. We will research these through our electronic atlas and a contemporary paper version of this.