[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

Just a question.

[alancalverd]

Not quite.

The crime on which  the  US Bible Belt is founded is simple oldfashioned confidence trickery (i.e. religion), which principally only harms its adherents, and the occasional lynching and bombing of abortion clinics stems from the religion.  Politicians can get votes by mentioning God.

The entire Northern Ireland economy is corrupt and the gangs adopt religious labels as identities: Shark/Jet, Protestant/Catholic, whatever. External support for the smaller gang is derived by advertising itself as "nationalist", which helps bring in money and weapons and thus evens the score a bit.  Politics is much more complicated here: if local, you need to associate with one of the gangs and deny that association, but to buy a seat at Westminster you need to give taxpayers' money openly to both and call it a Peace Process. Blacks, Jews, Muslims, foreigners and abortion clinics are relatively safe: religious expression here consists of throwing bricks at schoolchildren, who are carefully segregated and uniformed to avoid target confusion.

The remarkable fact is that despite or because of it, Northern Ireland has one of the highest educational standards in Europe if not the world, and a well-earned reputation for hospitality. Quite why such charming, intelligent people are ruled by thugs is completely beyond me.  Perhaps it's due to the tradition of sexual abuse in schools. Or maybe the next four years in the USA will shed some light on the mysterious propensity of scum to float on top of democracy.