iced coffee

The 2011 Census data released today continued the growing trend of religiosity losing its majority populace throughout the UK. In Northern Ireland 16.86% of the population responded as having “no religion” or “did not state religion” whereas the response for “persons with no religion or religion not stated” in the 2001 census was 13.88% — this marks a small increase of an increase of 2.98%.

In England and Wales the number of people selecting “no religion” increased from 15% in 2001 to 25% in 2011.

The NI data reveals 48% of the resident population are either Protestant or brought up Protestant, a drop of 5% from the 2001 census.

However, the numbers show that 45% of the resident population are either Catholic or brought up Catholic, yet only 41% Catholic on census day.

• 41% Catholic
• 19% Presbyterian
• 14% Church of Ireland
• 5.8% other Christian or Christian-related denominations
• 3% Methodist
• 0.8% other religions and philosophies

Putting this with the figures for national identity — the first time this question has been asked — the overall statistics become much more interesting as well bringing a better understanding of the politics of people in Northern Ireland. Just 25% regard themselves as Irish only. This just shows there is not a definable correlation between religion and national identity/voting pattern.

According to the BBC

7% say they either belong to another religion or none

And the UTV reported this as

Just over 5% of people in Northern Ireland said they do not belong to any religion

Each news outlet is taking different data to be the correct response.
The BBC are giving the number of 6.75% of those who “who did not state religion” for Question 17 which asked “What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?”. While UTV gave the number of those 5.59% of those who answered “none” to Question 18 which asked “What religion, religious denomination or body were you brought up in?”.

Neither of these take into consideration the 10.11% of people who answered “No Religion” under the same Question 17.

This inaccuracy of the data reporting is extremely important, and it’s a shame to see the media portray the numbers incorrectly. The numbers of those who have no religion are

Jill Farquhar states why this is important:

As politicians use the census statistics to form policy and allocate resources this type of misrepresentation is extremely significant. The use of data conflating religion with religious background produces an image of Northern Ireland which is significantly more religious and significantly less diverse than is actually the case. This reinforces the Catholic/Protestant binary and justifies the continued intrusion of religion into lawmaking in NI (see the restrictive abortion legislation for example).

More broadly, the conflation of ‘religion’ with ‘religious background’ perpetuates the idea that the religion of our parents defines our own religious identity and produces religion as something essential to the individual rather than something which can be changed, challenged and/or rejected.

For the purposes of the NI census, it seems, atheists really are ‘catholic atheists’ or ‘protestant atheists’.

Based on the data in English and Wales, the British Humanist Association (BHA) has calculated that if the change in Christianity shown between 2001 and 2011 continues, then Christians would be recorded as being in the minority from September 2018.

This is highly significant data as we watch rationality become the norm, yet there are still continued efforts to be done in education, particularly in Northern Ireland, which has seen a rise in Atheism and secularism, and indeed a growing progressive liberal community, however this has been much smaller than elsewhere in the UK.

Below is the data comparing the 2011 census data with that from 2001:

It was pointed out by members of the local public organisations, which I mentioned in a previous blog post, that it was a “personal attack” and that I tried to “publicly humiliate the organisation”. I find this difficult to comprehend, and perhaps the person who made this claim has difficulty comprehending the difference between a “personal attack” and publicly providing constructive criticism to a public body, which, as a member of the public I am within my right to do.

As I mentioned, the local LGBT support groups do great work in Belfast, however, the purpose of my post was to highlight an area in which they are in fact letting down their users and putting them at risk. In doing so I provided ways in which this can be rectified. Instead, and in the most unprofessional manner, I was asked to remove any mention of the group and that “workings of the group are not a public issue and this will be taken further”.

It is evident that this organisation does not take criticism well, which is both unfortunate from the perspective of the general public, and those who work within and around the organisation. If a group, such as the one mentioned, is so unwilling to take criticism, to the point that they will then privately request that it is removed — and issues hidden under the carpet — then what good is the group? Problems should not be ignored. When errors are pointed out, someone with better judgement would open up a dialogue rather than take offense, shut down communication, refuse to look into the issue and defend everything like a stubborn child.

However, I look forward to the response of the “Management Committee” on this issue, having also contacted them myself regarding their social media policy.

Yesterday, Saturday 7th Jan, Ron rounded-up the troops once again, this time at the Robots Exhibition at the newly opened Clotworthy House (Oriel Gallery) in Antrim Castle Gardens. A little advertised, low-key exhibition, with little reason given for its existence beyond being the “first exhibition in the brand new light-filled Oriel Gallery” and draw people to the café and gift shop.

The grounds look good, though far from complete, the café has good food (free coffee refills, which I abused) and great service, and accommodated us as we stuck around to chat.

Mixed in with the Robocop, R2D2 and the head of C-3PO are a number of obscure robots which may well be part of a private toy collection, either way, it’s a fun day out, and it was great to meet some lovely new and old friends: Ron, Sarah, Paul, Skip, Cat, Lexi, Paul, Kay, Bill, Mark and Steve.

The exhibition runs until 12th Jan.

I don’t know a lot about motor racing, but I do know that it was very wet on the unfortunate day of this year’s North West 200 race. So much so that of the planned races (five I believe) only one was completed in full. As well as the rain, there was a security alert resulting in the paddock being evacuated was followed by an oil spill on the road. It wasn’t a good day.

A number of people have referred to this week’s Assembly Election as the “Twitter Election”. This can be looked at in a number of ways: the number of politicians and parties on Twitter/Facebook, the number of journalists now using social media, as well as members of the public discussing politics and election through these online methods.

During the course of last night’s leaders debate 950 tweets were sent using the hashtag #ae11 and 660 sent using #ae11debate (many of those probably included both hashtags). “Peter Robinson”, “leaders debate”, “Tom Elliot”, “Margaret Ritchie”, “SDLP”, “Tom Elliott”, “David Ford” and “Marty” were all mentioned enough to trend in the UK both during and after the televised debate as online debate carried on. And the BBC did a good job of manning it’s @bbcnivote2011 feed.

UTV have also been very notable in getting a vast number of it’s journalists, presenters and various departments signed up to twitter, and releasing verified stories, including a partnership with Slugger O’Toole, bringing a series of “Tweetups”, or Twitter Roadshows, in Derry, East Belfast, Ballymena and Enniskillen – simply a method of getting the views of people in different constituencies, bringing the online chat offline. Also been particularly informative through their @utvelection election feed.

Facebook is another popular choice, to many, more popular due to how easy it is to “game” by adding friends in the hope that they will reciprocat, though my thoughts are very different in terms of using Facebook over Twitter. Especially when politicians do it wrong. I mentioned in a recent post that businesses and public figures, including politicians, should not use a personal profile on Facebook when connecting with people, or publicising their message. At the NI Assembly Tweetup in March, Jim Wells told me he wasn’t concerned that he was breaking Facebook’s own rules by knowingly promoting himself using a personal profile, in his own words: “Well, if they don’t know…” Not the best attitude really.

There are a few reasons, which I will reiterate again, the biggest deciding factor for anyone should be that it’s against Facebook’s rules: “Pages are for organizations, businesses, celebrities, and bands to broadcast great information in an official, public manner to people who choose to connect with them.” That includes politicians. Of course any natural person can create and use Facebook if they so wish, though if they want to promote their politics and policies and it is clear that is the case with many of the current batch of candidates in NI, though some are using private profiles, clearly meant for friends/family only. Though there are others who have no interest in following the rules.

For those worried about losing “friends” changing to a page, Facebook have a profile to page migration tool which carries across all friends and profile picture to a page. This also eliminates the maximum rule of 5,000 friends enforced on a profile.

I often want to “follow” a party/politician to watch their views and agenda, though I don’t always “like” them, and rarely am I their “friend”, so Twitter will generally take precedent for me. The problem with Facebook is that it is largely a “walled garden”, whereas Twitter is much more open. And for those who insist on using a Facebook profile rather than a page; those status updates updates are not viewable to anyone who doesn’t have a Facebook account unless it is done via a page.

View the list of all 218 Assembly candidates and their use of Facebook and Twitter, as well as a break-down of each party’s use of social media.

Leave a comment if there are any Facebook or Twitter accounts that have been left out and I will amend the list.

This was also posted on Slugger O’Toole.

The TUV website was hacked yesterday evening by a Twitter user calling himself Hector O’Hackatdawn (@hectorohackatd). A brief, but clever and humorous message was left on the homepage of the website which led the party to take the site down for a short period replacing it with a brief message about an “illegal intrusion”.

Any ordinary citizen who feels that attending a mass rally is not the best thing to do in order to show your anger at recent acts of violence needs to be set straight. Several thousand people gathered today at Belfast City Hall to show solidarity and to pay their respects to 25-year-old Pc Ronan Kerr was buried this morning in Co. Tyrone.

Attending such a rally shows that this is not wanted. It was a brilliant turn out, and over the last few days many people have joined in unity to fight this behaviour. Physically showing disapproval is a stronger statement than any other and I feel a strong statement has been made by many today.

Here’s a short video I shot of the minute silence which took place:

Shortly before 4pm yesterday, 2nd April, a young police officer, Ronan Kerr, only 3 weeks out of training, was murdered as a bomb went off under his car when he opened the door. This atrocity has left much ill-feeling across Northern Ireland for the future.

I found out after a quick glance at Twitter about 4.45pm on noticing a tweet by a friend, Stephen:

It was the #omagh hashtag which made me question what the tweet was in relation to. I clicked it and was brought as always to the Twitter search page showing the results. I was immediately informed through tweets by reputable news sources what had occurred, this was followed by a barrage of heart-felt messages of sympathy from “tweeters”, sharing their sadness, distress and anger at the loss of life by such a young man. Each of these tweets used the #omagh hashtag as way of them being grouped together, to show solidarity and support.

Twitter came to life unlike any other day with users displaying their dislike of this cowardly act, concerned for the future of N.I. It’s clear that the general public does not want this. People of Northern Ireland have moved on since the days of “The Troubles”. There is little support on either side for this behaviour. However, a quick search on Facebook shows some who are in favour; pleased in fact. These people must be stopped.

One such supporter is 45 year old Cookstown resident, Kevin Meehan, who posted a link to the article from the UTV website on his Facebook wall with the words “Great news ” YEAH HAAAAAA”” — a disgraceful human being. Also not very smart. His words, are in clear view for everyone to see, as well as links to his other social networks, his postal address and email address easily found. It may be futile, though myself and a number of others reported his Facebook for “hate speech”, his Twitter a/c (set as private) was sent a few nasty messages, and he was reported to the PSNI hate crimes.

[update] I’ve been given information regarding the above and his association with the IRA and extreme Republicanism. I’m chosing not to post any further information on this person.

Twitter, in instances like this, is not about getting retweets or simply latching onto a hashtag without doing something about it, but about raising awareness, finding a single voice in a place previously filled with hatred. Each time we are brought backwards, the disapproval is voiced. Today Twitter and Facebook make it easy for voices to be heard.

Regardless of my dislike of most political parties in Northern Ireland, to see them come together sharing a single opinion is great to see. Yes, adding a hashtag to a tweet doesn’t “fix” the problem, yet it doesn’t take away from the fact that many people will attempt to do something about this away from their computer. I hear rumour that a march/protest may take place next weekend, just as happened this time two years ago after the killing of police officer Stephen Carroll and two officers at Massereene barracks.

The current hashtag is #notinmyname. Sincere messages of sorrow, and of compassion towards Ronan Kerr’s Mother, on this Mothering Sunday, are being tweeted at a fast rate. My heart is with those affected. To the killers; there are not enough expletives. You have no support.

Last week I found Belfast’s most prominent Peace Walls on Cupar Way dividing the Shankill Road and Falls Road in West Belfast.

The wall was constructed in 1969 and is a 4 to 5 metre high concrete wall topped with 3 metres of cover from view metal sheeting and 6 metres of weldmesh fence. Until 2009 the wall was largely white with sprawls of graffiti and messages. Having been adorned with street-art by a team of 33 artists from the Meeting of Styles group. Transforming the wall from a monstrosity to a piece of artwork incorporating many styles and influences beyond the home borders.

Now laden with messages of hope and inspiration, the wall still separates those on both sides, who are largely afraid of a future without it.

The snow has gone, and floods are replacing the freeze.
But while it’s still fresh in your mind, here are a few more snow pics from Belfast: