By the time of the First World War, Belfast had an only too well founded reputation for bigotry and sectarian strife. Catholics, attracted by the jobs, frequently came into conflict with Protestants. The Protestants got most of the jobs, certainly the more skilled, craft-worker positions, but there was sufficient work about for a thriving Catholic community to have established itself in and around the main west Belfast artery of the Falls Road, where it existed in resentful proximity to its Protestant counterpart, the Shankill Road.
