Ghetto

A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure. The term was originally used in Venice to describe the part of the city to which Jews were restricted and segregated. The term has been applied in various contexts.

The word "ghetto" comes from the Jewish area of Venice, the Venetian Ghetto in Cannaregio. However, there is no agreement among etymologists about the origins of the Venetian language term. The various theories trace it to: a special use of Venetian getto, or "foundry" (there was one near the site of that city's ghetto in 1516);Yiddish get, or "deed of separation"; a clipped form of Egitto ("Egypt"), from Latin Aegyptus (presumably in memory of the exile); or Italian borghetto, or "small section of a town" (diminutive of borgo, which is of Germanic origin; see borough). By 1899 the term had been extended to crowded urban quarters of other minority groups.

In Northern Ireland, towns and cities have long been segregated along ethnic, religious and political lines. Northern Ireland's two main communities are its Irish nationalist/republican community (who mainly self-identify as Irish and/or Catholic) and its unionist/loyalist community (who mainly self-identify as British and/or Protestant). Ghettos emerged in Belfast during the riots that accompanied the Irish War of Independence. For safety, people fled to areas where their community was the majority. They then sealed off these neighborhoods with barricades to keep out rioters or gunmen from the other side.

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