Study reveals Scotland's sectarian equality gap
The Scotsman has reported of a new study which has revealed that Catholics in Scotland are at higher risk of death and at a greater economic disadvantage relative to Protestants compared to their counterparts in Northern Ireland.
The new research looked at 400,000 people living in the Scotland and Northern Ireland, has surprised academics and others who have previously assumed that the division between the denominations would be greater in Northern Ireland.
The study which was conducted by experts at Queen's University Belfast, Ulster University, Edinburgh University and the University of Leicester has led the Catholic Church in Scotland to call for more work to be undertaken in order to narrow the newly identified gap.
Duncan Morrow, writing in Scotland on Sunday, called for Scotland's equality legislation to be tested and to include sectarianism in routine monitoring of inequality.
There is a suggestion in the study that the situation in Scotland could have come from a lack of specific legislation to tackle religious inequality, similar to what was introduced in Northern Ireland follwoing 35 years of sectarian conflict.
Initial analysis of the data found that, in Scotland, Catholic men are 39 per cent more likely to die between the ages of 25 and 74 than Protestants. When the data was adjusted to take into account the effect that socio-economic status has on death rates, that figure was revised downwards to 14 per cent. Deprivation of the kind once seen in the Gorbals is a thing of the past, but statistics show that the life chances of Scots today are far from equal. Picture: B Marshall/Getty When it came to Scottish women, Catholics were 29 per cent more likely to die between the ages of 25 and 74 than Protestants – a figure that came down to 12 per cent when adjusted for socio-economic status. This contrasted with the Northern Irish situation where Protestant men were nearly 5 per cent more likely to die aged between 25 and 74 than Catholics when the figures were adjusted for socio-economic status.
“Yes, we were surprised by the findings,” admitted David Wright, the lead author of the study from Queen’s University. “Normally if you want to find a story about religion then you come to Northern Ireland, where we knew we would find a difference. But we didn’t really expect to find it in Scotland.”
The study concluded: “In Scotland, Catholics remain at greater socio-economic disadvantage relative to Protestants than in Northern Ireland and are also at mortality disadvantage. These disadvantages may result from sectarian discrimination acting on a much smaller minority group that is without the protection of the well-established anti-discrimination legislation enacted in Northern Ireland.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Any form of discrimination is completely unacceptable. “We are committed to tackling any form of sectarianism and are clear that everyone in Scotland must be empowered to achieve their potential, irrespective of faith, gender, race or sexuality.”
Read the full article at: http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/study-reveals-scotland-s-sectarian-equality-gap-1-4409787
