Northern Ireland: the politics of leisure in a divided society

The public provision of leisure services and the impact which this has on the community has become a political issue. Nowhere is this more the case than in Northern Ireland where economic and social problems, together with the Troubles, led to a massive increase in central government's sponsorship of public leisure provision in the 1970s. This was a political gesture made more political in the manner through which district councils and local government officials discharged their devolved responsibilities and the way in which local communities appropriated leisure facilities. The resultant pattern of leisure provision reflects existing community boundaries and, as such, reinforces rather than ameliorates sectarian divisions.