Background to the Research

• Launched in 2003, the Toward Reconciliation and Inclusion Project involved over 900 young people from throughout NI and produced exciting results relating to such issues as education, pastimes, substance abuse, street violence, sectarian threat and violence, and attitudes towards police and paramilitaries. The Facts, Fears and Feelings Project stems from this initial project and aimed to be an exclusively qualitative investigation of the impact of sectarianism on the everyday practicalities and feelings of young people and young adults.
  

Research Approach

• The project sought to be ethnographic in its aim, conducting fieldwork through open-ended conversations on a series of topical areas with 111 young people aged 16-35 living in deprived and segregated communities in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry.
  

Main Findings

• Almost all participants had left school early, were out of school, were seeking employment or were unemployed. Only 8 considered themselves still in school or were employed in skilled or community oriented jobs.
• All participants lived in housing areas with a majority representation of either Catholic or Protestant community affiliation and the majority defined themselves as Catholic or Protestant.
• General trends indicated that sectarianism meant different things to different people. Reponses were placed into five broad categories: sectarianism as a 'text book' definition; sectarianism in NI as connected to the world; sectarianism as exclusively related to NI Catholicism and Protestantism; sectarianism as violence and hatred; and sectarianism as related to NI culture and the Troubles.
• Participants demonstrated limited exposure to the opposite community. Just under two thirds were isolated to such an extent that they expressed being 'unaffected' or 'untouched' by sectarianism, suggesting that a 'cocooning' between communities has occurred, where 'separate' but 'content' was acceptable for many of the participants. Only when their relative isolation was discussed with them did they begin to consider the segregated circumstances in which they live.
• The exclusion was complicated by fears about travelling through, shopping or socialising in areas occupied by the other community. Three quarters of participants stated that they would be concerned or fearful if they went into an area of the opposite community. Outside of cross-community programmes in school, a substantial number of young people had never entered areas of the opposite community for any reason. For some, their exposure was so limited that they felt best or most comfortable when 'inside' their own community. This isolation left them feeling relatively unconcerned with the effects of sectarianism.
• Young people expressed that they live in areas where they interact with members of their own communities but have little concern for the workings or movements of the other community. Many young people living in enclave areas were very tied to their 'home' environments and described most movement as intra-area movement, staying close to 'what ye know'.
• Despite their very limited long-term exposure to the other community, two thirds of participants discussed possibilities for a 'better', less divided NI.
• Young people were genuinely affected by familial and peer audiences and almost all attributed their feelings about the other community to their immediate guardian's feelings, whether open-minded about or against mixing with the other community.
• All participants frankly discussed their parents' and grandparents' feelings towards the other community and one third talked about their parents and grandparents having negative views of the opposite community; many distanced themselves from this, even when they held relatively similar views. They most often saw their parents and grandparents as victims of conflict and made allowances for prejudice.
• Participants mostly maintained close friendship networks within their area. Two thirds of participants discussed involvement in cross-community projects at school, but only 1 in 4 maintained any lasting or meaningful friendship.
• Many participants noted that, whilst peers from the other community were 'okay' and that they had 'nothing against them', they were uninterested in pursuing a relationship, or felt it best to stay in their own area.
• Beyond normal youthful activities, many participants were involved in violent activities with friends. Approximately one third were involved in violent skirmishes either as a victim, perpetrator or both. Almost all such skirmishes were explained and justified to some degree by division.
• Although online social networking and 'text' messaging hold the potential to change friendship possibilities, several young people noted how such technologies were sometimes used to issue sectarian abuse. Several young people did note that online networks created opportunities to freely chat to peers of the other community and to build friendships.
• Whilst immediate family members have a large impact on how young people feel and interact with members of the other group, participants discussed the subtle pressures that community 'people' or members can place on them as most restrictive. Fears of disapproval or reprisals from community members led several young people to cease participation in sports and cultural interests seen to be connected to the other community.
• Most young people thought that choices regarding marriage and permanent partners were their decision and beyond family influence. Although parents were mostly supportive, in almost every case where a couple married across the community divide and tried to locate in their area or a new area, they were initially bullied or eventually forced out.
• 80% of participants discussed some remaining pressures from continuing paramilitary influences in their area. Participants were both in favour and against warnings and punishment of anti-social behaviour, showing that their decision-making still involves subtle influences from community members about traditional paramilitary community guardians.
  

Conclusions

• Although progress is being made in NI, division, segregation and sectarianism are still present in the lives of many. The only way to tackle such long-standing divisions is through conscious efforts to monitor progress and report discoveries. This report aimed to be part of this.
• A drawback of such research is that it provides the data but not the answers to the problems. The authors include some discussion of good practice, addressing such issues as anti-sectarian strategies and programmes; person-to-person initiatives for parents and children; anti-racism initiatives; the potential of youth service provision to cross the community divide; funding for youth provision; sports, arts and cultural heritage within the segregated environment; involvement of statutory bodies in restorative justice projects; and greater research to examine the potential of computer mediated communication and social networking.
• NI is in a distinctive position to set standards for how post-conflict communities can deal with division. Although NI's conditions are unique, how government tackles issues of sectarianism and segregation in the upcoming decades will set the bar for other areas seeking peaceful resolutions to conflict.