Ben Lowry: Just imagine if the Holylands was 94% Protestant

We reported this week that 94% of students residing in the Holylands area near Queen’s University, Belfast, come from a Catholic background.
By Ben Lowry
Published 21st Nov 2020, 12:16 BST
Updated 21st Nov 2020, 13:36 BST
The Holylands on St Patrick's Day in 2017. It would be vile if the housing beside Northern Ireland’s premier university was a scene of Union Jack waving parties, so that students became 94% Protestant. Picture Press EyeThe Holylands on St Patrick's Day in 2017. It would be vile if the housing beside Northern Ireland’s premier university was a scene of Union Jack waving parties, so that students became 94% Protestant. Picture Press Eye
The Holylands on St Patrick's Day in 2017. It would be vile if the housing beside Northern Ireland’s premier university was a scene of Union Jack waving parties, so that students became 94% Protestant. Picture Press Eye

(The story can be read here: ‘Whopping 94.2% of students in Holylands are Catholic’)

The final figure is unknowable because many student backgrounds are unknown. But we can safely say there is a big imbalance.

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Months ago I tried to draw open a debate about the nationalist triumphalism that has long been part of the atmosphere around Queen’s, I got embroiled in a Twitter storm, with hundreds of abusive messages.

As far as I am aware, no moderate nationalist paused to accept there might be a problem.

Yesterday, when I cited the 94% figure on Twitter, I got little abuse, maybe because the stats are so stark they can’t be denied. Instead, there was plenty of mockery. It was dismissed as the News Letter covering “a non story”.

Some school friends of mine took a house in the Holylands in 1990. The area leaned nationalist back then but nothing like as bad as now.

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You expect students to be open minded, so it would be vile if the housing beside Northern Ireland’s premier university was a scene of Union Jack waving parties, so that students became 94% Protestant.

But if that did happen, there would be uproar.

Dublin and Irish America would say Catholic students felt intimidated and would interfere until there was a plan to change things.

• Ben Lowry (@benlowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

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Related topics:Ben LowryNorthern IrelandProtestantTwitterQueen