Given the rise in political polarization in the United States, some pundits believe that the nation could be coming apart at the seams. A new documentary uses a recent example from overseas to demonstrate in vivid detail what that would entail.
“Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland,” a five-part documentary released by the BBC this spring, gives an oral history of what euphemistically became known as “The Troubles” in the six counties that comprise Northern Ireland. The series, which is premiering in America on PBS, shows the deep and lasting scars that the slow-motion civil war had on generations of Ulster residents.
From Civil Rights to Civil War
The series’ first episode focuses on the roots of the conflict, between Protestant loyalists aligned with the British government in London and Catholics seeking to unite Northern Ireland (still a part of the United Kingdom) with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin. What began as a justifiable desire for political equality slowly descended a few steps short of madness.
At the root of “The Troubles” lay the electoral disparity within Northern Ireland. Because the voting franchise was restricted to landholders, and because a greater percentage of Protestants owned property than Catholics, the Republican faction comprised a permanent political minority. Looking to the American civil rights movement, the Catholic community launched their own civil rights push in Ireland, under the mantra of “One man, one vote.”
In one sense, American concerns over “rigged” political processes echo the protests of Catholics in Northern
