Protestant-Catholic Conflict: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Realities was part of the Global Uncertainties initiative and was funded by the AHRC and ESRC. The title of the project conveys the important, and unusual, fusion of historical and contemporary research central to our venture. Our task was to examine the long term historical perspective of Protestant-Catholic conflict to help put into context the current relevance of religion in international security concerns. This specific area of tension provided ample scope for research as it not only has a rich and varied history but examples of local and regional discord still persist, notably in Ireland and the United States. Significantly, in other areas of historic conflict, tensions have either died away or been resolved. The continuing discord in certain areas and resolution of conflict in others provides potential for understanding and addressing other contemporary conflicts in which religion plays a role.
Our research focused on three areas. The first involved the comparative analysis of anti-Catholic movements in the English speaking world, drawing on the extensive work of Professor John Wolffe. The second related to the role of religion in local sectarian conflict both in English cities and in Northern Ireland. Our Research Associate, Philomena Sutherland, concentrated on the English cities in the study and John Bell, Research Assistant at the Institute of Conflict Research, focused on Northern Ireland. The third area related to the British perceptions of Roman Catholicism and national security in the period between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Alec Corio joined us with the aim of producing a PhD on this topic by the end of the venture.
Another outcome from the project was a symposium and collaborative book, the work of a team of experts, providing an overview of Protestant-Catholic conflict since the Reformation. This is now available (Protestant-Catholic Conflict from the Reformation to the 21st Century: The Dynamics of Religious Difference, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, ed. John Wolffe). There will also be an annotated on-line bibliography of relevant literature and a sole-authored book by John Wolffe providing a synthesis of the work and exploring implications for contemporary security concerns. The programme culminated in 2012 with a series of seminars and a concluding conference in Belfast on 5-7 September for both academic and non-academic stakeholders.
Professor John Wolffe in conversation with Terry Waite
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