I’m feeling just a bit culturally/politically starved today, since I missed listening to Stephen Nolan on – what else? – ’The Nolan Show’ in the morning, and William Crawley on ’Talkback’ over lunch. But half a loaf is better than no bread, and I did get part of Crawley’s interview with a man with an American accent who’s written a book all about the Titanic.
They talked amiably about the Titanic and how ’it was fine when it left us’ (a good one if you haven’t heard it seventeen times before), about its size, about how terrific the book is and how much info it packs in. But here’s the weirdest thing, although we should pretty well know it by now: Belfast shipyards gave a great number of Protestant workers jobs, but if you were a Catholic….Well, chances were you didn’t get much of a look-in.
Catholic workers were involved in building the Titanic, but not too many. And any who did get a job, they were of a less desirable and unskilled nature. And of course Catholic workers who did get a minor job faced harassment, intimidation, and even physical attacks within the shipyard. If was far from uncommon for Catholic workers to be thrown into the water and pelted with rivets by their Protestant workmates.
The shipyard had a longstanding reputation as a “Protestant closed shop,” where employment opportunities were predominantly reserved for Protestants This reflected the widespread discrimination and sectarianism that Catholics suffered throughout Belfast. And if you were unlucky in the shipyards, you could find a hammer dropped on your head; at times of tension Catholic workers were flung in the water and were lucky to escape with their lives.
But who am I telling about this? I’m sure, in the part of the Talkback interview I didn’t hear, this appalling sectarianism was discussed in detail by William and his guest, and I’d imagine it’s an important part of the book, which sweet William stressed repeatedly was a really good book.
Aren’t we lucky to have media that go after not just the truth but the whole truth? And to have writers, I’d feel safe in saying, who do the same.
My mate said ” Nothing good ever came out of the Shipyard”
It has always baffled Me, the Frenzied attraction of a Passenger Vessel that crashed and sunk, causing the death of almost 1,500 people. You never hear of the company that Built the CHALLENGER, and COLUMBIA Space Shuttles that exploded and Kill their crews {14 altogether} setting up a Museum or a Visit Centre of said Vessels. please
Personally I think it’s Ghoulish.
Same here Billy.
The ship they couldn’t sink that sank on its maiden voyage.
I accept your. point, guys – but my main contention is that all signs of sectarianism are stripped from the shipyards when this romantic tale is told, sometimes with the chuckle of ‘It was OK when it left us”…FFS
Things like anti Catholic bigotry are glossed over by the likes of Radio six counties. Don’t want to startle the horses. Someone, I forget who, called the shipyard a Protestant soup kitchen. Is it even still functioning?