Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - Press Releases - Young people more optimistic about community relations

10 March 2005

Yong people are more optimistic about community relations, despite the increasing polarisation of politics in Northern Ireland in the last 18 months, a major research report revealed today (Thursday 10th March 2005).

Young people more optimistic about community relations

The Young Life and Times Survey, carried out by the Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive (ARK) and published as part of the Community Relations Council's Community Relations Week, looked at the attitudes and experiences of hundreds of 16-year-olds across Northern Ireland in 2004.

Community Relations Council (CRC) chief executive, Duncan Morrow, says that the findings point to a more positive outlook on community relations than in an identical study carried out the previous year.

“The Young Life and Times Survey gave hundreds of 16-year-olds across Northern Ireland the chance to air their experiences and views on politics, sectarianism and other social issues,” he says.

“What is interesting is the comparison of results between this study and an investigation also carried out by Ark 12 months previous and the changes that have occurred against a back-drop of electoral gains by both the DUP and Sinn Fein in the Assembly and European elections and the apparent polarisation of politics here.”

“The findings actually point to an increasingly positive attitude towards community relations, with Protestant respondents in particular being much more optimistic than the previous year.

“On the whole however, Catholics were significantly more likely to say that community relations had improved in the last five years than Protestants and are more optimistic about community relations in the future,” he says.

Dirk Schubotz of Ark says that the research also looked at attitudes towards religious identity and the respondents' contact with members of the "other community".

“The findings of this research project provide optimism for the future of community relations, as those respondents who experience mixed-religion schools and neighbourhoods have developed friendships across the socio-religious divide, which will potentially last into adulthood. The positive experiences that young people had in cross-community projects will hopefully also be recorded and encourage more such projects to take place and be set up,” he says.

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Media contact: Chris Harrison, JLPR: 02890471282, 07766417550 or c.harrison@jlprni.com
Notes to the editor:

1. 824 16 year olds responded to the 2004 Young Life and Times Survey.

2. Young Life and Times is a constituent part of ARK, the Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive. ARK is a joint initiative of the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast.

3. The survey has been funded by the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland 2000-2004, Measure 2:1 – Reconciliation for Sustainable Peace.

4. Full details and results of the Young Life and Times survey can be found on the survey website at www.ark.ac.uk/ylt

5. For further information on the Young Life and Times survey contact Dr Dirk Schubotz, ARK/Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research, Tel: 028 9097 3947 or Email: d.schubotz@qub.ac.uk