ABSTRACT
This chapter tackles the enduring relationship between fear, prejudice and residential segregation in Northern Ireland. It shows how segregation is both a response to and a factor in the reproduction of the suspicion and hostility that divides Catholics and Protestants. The chapter examines the relationship between ethno-sectarian segregation and fear through analysing the competing discourses of loss, victimhood and harm. Ethno-sectarianism is a form of racism within which labelling and group identities are based upon prejudice and stereotyping. But intra-community heterogeneity lacks the capacity to de-territorialise Northern Irish society toward more agreed and agreeable forms of political ownership. This community based experience and collectivisation of harm raised and still raises community consciousness. Suffering thus remains tied to the overall geography of political resistance and the ethno-sectarian manipulation of victimhood. The capacity to reduce the impact of place upon identity and belief is undermined by complex renditions of physical territory and cognitive territoriality.
