ABSTRACT
The ‘bridge’ built in the seventies by community action increasingly appears flimsy and weak in relation to the larger political and religious divisions between the two communities. The experience of community action in Northern Ireland has underlined its relative failure to have any real influence on those larger social, economic and political forces influencing and shaping events in the Province. Community work in Northern Ireland is increasingly financed through, and thus to some extent controlled by, government departments and local authorities. The latter are closely involved in assisting community groups to run local resource centres and in the provision of educational support for community activists. The experience of community groups in Northern Ireland is a striking example of the British genius for taking the radical edge off community action by creating various forms of co-optive machinery. The experience amongst the black population in England is somewhat similar.
