Devoted to being British:Young Unionists’ Identities after the Good Friday Agreement
Devoted to being British:Young Unionists’ Identities after the Good Friday Agreement

Summary/Abstract: At a first glance, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 erased all social, political, and economic differences between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Instead of growing together as one community, however, young unionists in particular have developed a strong sense of their particular socio-cultural identity which leads to recurring outbreaks of violence. The changing attitudes to the peace process by unionists’ will be outlined in this paper, followed by a closer look at unionist identities and their construction, in particular the minority aspect and the differences in identity between the generations. The underlying question is whether the Good Friday Agreement really helped to ease the tension between the communities – or has its approach to appease everyone created an identity group which suddenly feels more disadvantaged than ever?

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