THE true extent of religious segregation has been laid bare in the latest data from the Northern Ireland Census.
The most religiously-exclusive region, where almost the entire population belongs to just one side of the Catholic-Protestant divide, appears to be the west bank of the Foyle in Londonderry.
But the new figures show that similar patterns persist in areas like west Belfast and rural Armagh, almost 15 years after the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
The most extreme area of all in Ulster is the Shantallow East electoral ward in Londonderry, where 98 per cent of the residents are Catholic.
This was followed by the Creggan South electoral ward (97 per cent Catholic), Springtown (97 per cent), Beechwood (96 per cent), Creggan Central (96 per cent) and Shantallow West (96 per cent) – all in Londonderry.
Perhaps unusually, there are fewer Protestant wards which show such extreme sectarian divides as those above.
For example, the most strongly Protestant ones are Bushmills and Ballylough in north Antrim, both at 91 per cent.
But they are the only electoral wards in which Protestants make up more than 90 per cent of the population.
Others with overwhelmingly Protestant majorities are Ahoghill, Carnmoon, Craigywarren, Cullybackey, Dunluce and Kells – all 89 per cent.
Belfast’s Shankill ward is 85 per cent Protestant and Woodvale 87 per cent, while Andersonstown and Poleglass are both well over 90 per cent Catholic.
While in Armagh, Markethill is 80 per cent Protestant, further south the settlements of Camlough and Crossmaglen are 95 per cent Catholic.
Peter Sheridan, chief executive of cross-community charity Co-Operation Ireland, lives in Londonderry and joked that he could nearly list the Protestants in the Shantallow area.
He said before the Good Friday Agreement there were 18 peace walls in Belfast – but that today there are about 90.
“At one time we were killing each other. Now we’ve got to learn to live together,” he said. “It’s not a genuinely shared society when you live in different places.”
The figures all come from the 2011 Census, in which residents were asked which religion they belong to or were brought up in. Choices included Catholic, Protestant, Other Christian or None.
The figures also reveal the most atheistic electoral ward – Harbour, North Down, where 17 per cent said None.