THE ULSTER CONFLICT both these acts since they sought to take under state control, in return for subsidization, institutions which had been built up and were still controlled by, the Catholic Church; but the general extension of the welfare state in Ulster gave children's allowances, maternity grants, grammar school and university scholarships to Catholics and Protestants alike. The cost of all this was underwritten initially by the post-war Labour government (in recognition of Ulster's contribution to the war effort) and subsequently by all following British governments. Northern Ireland would have found it impossible to fi.nance schemes for housing, health, education and social security otherwise. The price Ulster had to pay for this was the surrender of much of the freedom given to it by the Government of Ireland Act. The Northern Ireland budget and all supplementary estimates had to be submitted yearly to the British Treasury for prior approval. The real sorepoint in Catholic/Protestant relations in this period of rising prosperity and rising expectations was the actual local control and allocation of resources by the Protestant bourgeoisie in even predominantly Catholic areas. This had been brought about by the gerrymandering of local govemment electoral ward boundaries in the "siege" period to prevent certain Catholic areas, notably Derry, from seceding to the Free State. The operation had been carried out as a political act, but the new social legislation had greatly extended the potentials of state and local authority patronage, and in housing, health, transport and education the best jobs and the most lucrative contracts went to government supporters. Housing was a particularly sensitive area since Ulster was chronically short of decent housing due to laissez-faire neglect in the 1930s and the effects of German bombs during the war. Housing acts of 1945 and 1946 provided subsidies from both state and local authorities for public and private builders; and a Housing Trust, ifinanced by the governement but autonomous in its operations, was set up to build workers' houses in all areas of Northern Ireland. The vigour with which the housing problem was tackled was fairly commendable, what was not was the way the houses thus built were allocated. Local authorities would site and allocate new housing developments for the sake of electoral advantage rather than need. The growth of a new Catholic middle class in Ulster containing articulate and ambitious men was soon to challenge this state of affairs. 63
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