The Civil Rights Movements of the USA and Northern Ireland

Abstract

World opinion deals primarily with the global transmission of values. Why, then, did the US black civil rights movement end in legislation which altered social and political relations, while the Northern Irish Catholic civil rights movement ended in 30 years of the Troubles? Rusciano argues that a common basis for community existed in the USA, based upon Judeo-Christian values and traditional principles from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. By contrast, religion was a primary basis of political division in Northern Ireland, and there were scant political traditions to form a basis for community to heal the divisions. In addition, world opinion had not undergone the fundamental transition needed to make it a force in this conflict.