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Political identities amongst the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement generation in Northern Ireland Mylie Brennan (24168861) PUREID: 593769090 Northern Ireland Identity Political Identity 'Neither' unionist or nationalist Unionism Irish nationalism Brexit Belfast/ Good Friday Agreement This thesis examines the national, communal, and religious identities of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement generation in Northern Ireland (those born between 1993 and 2003). These voters have come of age in a post-conflict society amid political turmoil caused by the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, often called Brexit. Members of this generation are unique for several reasons: they do not have first-hand experience of the violent ethnonational conflict known as the Troubles (1969-1998), they are the first generation to be raised with a devolved government, and they were young during the Brexit referendum – many of them too young to vote in 2016. This means that this cohort have been caught between two major historical and political decisions in which they have had little to no political influence. Given this context, this project seeks to explore how members of this generation make sense of their identities in a drastically shifting political landscape. Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of this generation between October 2021 and March 2022. Narrative Thematic Analysis was applied to interview transcripts using the theoretical lens of social identity and the social constructionist approach to nationalism. It was found that these participants utilise traditional understandings of Northern Ireland identities, but also regularly renegotiate the meanings of and boundaries around these identities. The peace process, which is often considered to have begun in earnest in 1998, heavily shaped the identity formation of participants, as has the UK’s decision to leave the EU. Brexit has particularly challenged British unionist identities as the UK government and the Democratic Unionist Party’s actions during negotiations were viewed negatively by most participants. The Irish nationalist identity, while continuing to be a cultural identity, is increasingly being defined by aspirations for a united Ireland, which has allowed some from British unionist backgrounds to claim a civic nationalist identity in a specifically political context. Those who identify as ‘neither’ unionist or nationalist have a broad spectrum of political and constitutional preferences, and individual interpretations of this identity vary depending on background. The religious identities of Protestant and Catholic are used to refer to the two traditional ethnonational communities, and participants who practiced religion rhetorically distanced their religious practice from association with political unionism or nationalism as a result. The popular Northern Irish identity was utilised by most participants, though this was understood differently depending on community background, viewed as a regional British identity, a regional Irish identity, or as a separate, primary identity. Altogether, the findings of this thesis illuminate important trends in contemporary Northern Ireland that will very likely have implications for the region’s future. 2026-10-01T16:37:08Z Text Thesis 10.17034/32639775.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Political_identities_amongst_the_Belfast_Good_Friday_Agreement_generation_in_Northern_Ireland/32639775 All Rights Reserved