Religious practice and community construction

Taken from the Latin, religio means to ‘bind together’. This chapter explores how religious rituals create social bonds, and how this feeds into politics and conflict in Northern Ireland. Our concern is how the practices of Protestantism and Catholicism have been utilized to construct a sense of community and have excluded the other group. We focus on attendance, religious rituals, celebrations and other activities that take place in the context of the churches. We also explore how the churches provide the social structures that facilitate community building.