Emma deSouza: Can Northern Ireland’s peace babies deliver on the promise of 1998?

If we can’t have a serious conversation about the mistakes and failures of Northern Ireland's past now, then we can't expect the next generation to do it, writes Emma deSouza

Emma DeSouza: "Each generation presents an opportunity for change, and in this digital era, we have a generation globally who are more active and engaged than ever before, however in the Northern context, young people are outcasts to the peace process, oft spoken of but not given any agency to effect change." File picture: Niall Carson/PA

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern recently remarked that young people in Northern Ireland should be celebrated as “our singular success”, but in the decades following the end of large-scale violence after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, vast swathes of young people born in the North are out the door almost as soon as they can walk, leaving behind not only the systemic socio-political failings plaguing the region, but its aging society of peacebuilders and stagnant peace process as well.  

Inez Murray says young people are leaving “because they are fed up of the way things are here”.