Childhood in transition: growing up in ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland

Abstract

Northern Ireland is in the early stages of transition from conflict, but progress is regularly affected by political and public discontent. A divided landscape, segregated and under-resourced communities are enduring legacies of ‘the Conflict’. Yet the political will to tackle social and community division, consult with and support communities has been lacking. Grounded in six communities most affected by poverty and the Conflict this paper illustrates the difficulties, tensions and contradictions experienced during transition and how, in the process of ‘change’, children and young people have been silenced, marginalised and demonised.

Keywords:

• Northern Ireland
• conflict
• community
• informal control
• identity

Acknowledgements

The research on which this paper is based was a partnership project between Queen's University Belfast, Save the Children Northern Ireland and The Prince's Trust. We thank the children, young people and adults within the communities for giving generously of their time and experiences.

Notes

1. The term ‘the Conflict’ is used to refer to the period of armed conflict involving state and non-state groups between 1969 and 1998 when the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, signed by most political parties in Northern Ireland, the British and Irish Governments, established a commitment to democratic and peaceful means of resolving political issues.

2. Paramilitary groups often acted as agents of informal control, policing communities through public warnings, acts of humiliation, exiling, beatings and shootings.

3. A ‘peacewall’/‘peaceline’ is a barrier (usually a wall, gate or fence) separating a Catholic/Nationalist community and a Protestant/Unionist community.

4. Between January 2008 and December 2010, 47% of the 272 recorded ‘casualties as a result of paramilitary style attacks’ were carried out against young people aged under 25, including 91 assaults and 38 shootings (PSNI 2011, 4).

5. Parades and flags are symbolic expressions of community and cultural identity. Given that identities are oppositional, one community expressing their identity through such rituals can be seen by the ‘other community’ as a threat to their identity.