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”.

The legacy of the conflict is a mess not of their making; Northern Ireland’s youth grapple with economic deprivation, political instability, intergenerational trauma and a society that often lags behind on social justice and equality issues. For many young people who make the journey to Dublin or Liverpool or further afield as part of the so-called brain drain, these temporary reprieves become a lifelong exodus with evidence demonstrating that almost two-thirds of young people who leave Northern Ireland opt not to return, according to thinktank Pivitol.

20-year-old student Inez Murray says young people are leaving “because they are fed up of the way things are here, they’re fed up with the sectarianism, they’re fed up with the lack of government and they’re fed up with the fact that no one’s really delivering for them”.

21-year-old student Jude O’Kane is from Belfast but opted to move to Dublin for university. He says: “Something needs to change, most [young people] I know have left Northern Ireland and most don’t intend on coming back. There are no opportunities; I love home but if I want a job that will inspire me, there’s nothing at home that I really want to stay for.” 

Murray contends that addressing the brain drain “starts with making this place a good place to live in”.

Jude O'Kane: “Something needs to change, most [young people] I know have left Northern Ireland and most don’t intend on coming back."

For 16-year-old Lauren Bond, a member of the Northern Ireland youth parliament, “Nobody can disagree with the fact that the Good Friday Agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland, however it’s where that peace is going to go, how strong that peace is, and whether that peace will last”.

Therein lies the question: How can Northern Ireland’s peace process be expected to blossom under the stewardship of a new generation if we are losing our best and brightest to places unencumbered with the unaddressed legacy of our past?

This doesn’t read like the resounding success that Bertie Ahern spoke of.  Apart entirely from the long-term economic impact of losing large portions of younger demographics to emigration, there’s the potential for a long-term impact upon the peace process. 

Evidence indicates that the North’s Good Friday generation are less concerned with the past, and more focused on their futures. Research from the Northern Ireland Youth Forum showed mental health, education, human rights and climate to be the most pressing issues for young people, whilst only 7% of respondents cited any interest in legacy.

These attitudes pose both a challenge and an opportunity. It is perfectly reasonable and understandable that young people would prioritise immediate concerns that impact their future and opportunities rather than the legacy of the past, but if that choice is rooted in ignorance or indifference rather than understanding, then division can once again take hold. 

Lauren Bond: “We should be constantly looking at how can we implement this agreement further."

The opportunity presents itself in that a new generation may not find itself bound by — or even interested in — the divisions of the past; There’s an undeniable attractiveness to wanting to view the Good Friday generation in this way but given the absence of any meaningful education on the Troubles and the Good Friday Agreement, there’s every likelihood it is based on a lack of knowledge.

Reflecting on 1998, Bond remarks: “When you see the energy that people had back then and the absolute excitement and hope for the future, and then you find my generation where things have stayed the same pretty much throughout my life. 

What’s different from when we celebrated the 20th anniversary to the 25th? Nothing really, we’re just kind of tiptoeing around the Good Friday Agreement.

"We’re too scared to look back at the mistakes we made in the past, too scared to look forward to the future, so it’s just come to a standstill and my generation don’t know where they stand in that, they don’t know where their place is.” 

There’s a desire to see the North’s youth as the answer to all our problems. That's a practice not unique to Northern Ireland; one need only look to the climate debate to see how the buck is being passed to the next generation. But Northern Ireland’s young people are not being given the tools, resources, and opportunities to build a better, more peaceful Northern Ireland.

21-year-old Matthew Taylor, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Pure Mental NI says education is key. He said: “There's no political education, there’s history but there’s no political education which I think is a lot more important than some of the other subjects that are taught — we’re taught RE [Religious Education] in a standardised curriculum. Why are we not taught politics?

“I was never taught how to vote, I was never taught how to decipher different manifestos to see who I should vote for, I wasn’t taught who any of the parties were. If [political education] is taught at school when you’re younger, it would make it a lot easier.” 

Matthew Taylor: “I was never taught how to vote, I was never taught how to decipher different manifestos to see who I should vote for, I wasn’t taught who any of the parties were."

Can Northern Ireland’s peace babies deliver on the promise of 1998? 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. 

Bond says: “We should be constantly looking at how can we implement this agreement further, how can we improve this agreement, how can we relate this agreement to the young people of today so that when they grow up, they have a role, and they can continue the peacebuilding process.” 

But implementation remains on the outskirts of discourse for this anniversary, and the concept of reform is near taboo; If we can’t have a serious conversation about the mistakes and failures now, how can we expect the next generation to do it? Especially when we can’t even keep them here.