多1家 chive Photos/Reuters/Mike Mahoney Apprentice Boys March Members of a Protestant loyalist group called the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in a parade in Londonderry(Derry), Northern Ireland. The Apprentice Boys take the ir name from a group of Protestants that shut the gates of Derry against the Catholic army of James II in 1689. Annual Protestant marches such as this are often accompanied by a rise in tensions between Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic communities. A frequent flashpoint (t )is the issue of whether or not a Protestant parade is allowed to march through traditionally Catholic Northern Irelands Catholic and Protestant communities are both predominantly conservative in their social and religious outlook. Church attendance remains high although it has been falling in recent years. Catholic and Protestant attitudes on matters of sexual morality and abortion are notably similar. Divorce levels are low in comparison to those in the rest of the United Kingdom. The proportion of mixed Catholic-Protestant marr ages has risen recently but is still estimated at only 5 percent of all marriages. Protestant family sizes, as elsewhere in the United Kingdom contracted during the 20th century, but Catholic family sizes tended to remain larger. Social attitudes in rural and small-town areas are more conservative than those in the cities--urban-rural differences are probably greater than Catholic-Protestant differences in this regard12 A pprentice Boys March Members of a Protestant loyalist group called the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in a parade in Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland. The Apprentice Boys take their name from a group of Protestants that shut the gates of Derry against the Catholic army of James II in 1689. Annual Protestant marches such as this are often accompanied by a rise in tensions between Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic communities. A frequent flashpoint (燃点) is the issue of whether or not a Protestant parade is allowed to march through traditionally Catholic neighborhoods. Northern Ireland’s Catholic and Protestant communities are both predominantly conservative in their social and religious outlook. Church attendance remains high, although it has been falling in recent years. Catholic and Protestant attitudes on matters of sexual morality and abortion are notably similar. Divorce levels are low in comparison to those in the rest of the United Kingdom. The proportion of mixed Catholic-Protestant marriages has risen recently but is still estimated at only 5 percent of all marriages. Protestant family sizes, as elsewhere in the United Kingdom, contracted during the 20th century, but Catholic family sizes tended to remain larger. Social attitudes in rural and small-town areas are more conservative than those in the cities—urban-rural differences are probably greater than Catholic-Protestant differences in this regard