Source article – https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/half-of-young-people-in-the-republic-dont-fully-understand-the-troubles-h68kcfj3r

43 comments

  2. Pretty worryingly low figure in support for the Good Friday Agreement among younger people

    You would hope that is purely a response to the stalemate at Stormont

    The institutions could probably do with reform but it would have to be done very delicately

  3. I’m actually surprised at the %s for Understand and Interested in the Troubles in the 18-34 year old. I honestly thought it would be lower.

  4. No offence but what do southerners know what it was actually like. They had a big nice border securing them and all they saw was what was put on the telly. The Monaghan and Dublin bombings was british state sponsored terrorism done through loyalists and they still blamed the IRA because they just wanted them to lay down and be ethnically cleansed from Ulster

  5. This is disappointing but not in the least bit surprising, to be honest. This sub in particular can often be a useful litmus test of the viewpoint of many young people and their take on our history over the past sixty or so years.

  6. If anything, anyone who self reports to “fully understand” The Troubles clearly knows little of the Troubles. There’s still so much we don’t know… e.g. who did the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

    I’d be interested in seeing a comparison of a pop quiz. I bet those who claim to know more would perform a lot worse than those who “admit” to not fully understanding.

  7. even though i agree with the way most of the trends are going i don’t understand being anti GFA and that’s worrying

  8. 61%/66% “fully understand the history of the troubles”?

    Jesus christ, that’s a very large number of confidently incorrect people.

  10. Agreed. It was always in the background.

    The Omagh bombing was 24 years ago. Those in the 18 to 34 age bracket were at most 10 years old. It was the summer & most 10 year olds were out playing.

    I can remember exactly where I was when I heard about it. Radio news, standing in my Grannies kitchen. Everyone shushed and listened.

    The news at 6 showed a lot. Got the heebies earlier watching some clips of it on “Don’t look back in anger”

    We saw and understood a lot. We were fearful it would come south.

  11. Tbf the good Friday agreement was a small paragraph in my school history book from what I remember so not surprised people don’t know it’s significance. It’s only as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned it’s held up around the world as a peace deal that should be replicated and I think that’s something to be proud of

  14. Wow, I never thought that many people under 55 would be idiots. That less than half of people thought there was no alternative to violence is sad

  15. How on earth could anyone in the Republic, let alone that young demographic say they ‘fully’ understand the history of the troubles. I don’t remember being so full of myself at that age, nor my peers. There’s always one etc. but by God.

  19. 18-34 ffs. Put an 18 and a 34 year old beside eachother and see what they have in common

  21. I’m 28 and I remember the majority of my class having zero interest in history and actually hating the subject.
    I’ve no doubt that the young people who don’t support the good Friday agreement have zero understanding of it.
    Worrying all the same though.
    The world is fucked

  23. I wish I had learned more in school about the Troubles.

    I did GCSE History and my childhood consisted of listening to the Good Friday Agreement on the radio, and my Dad being told ”every time you go on holiday a bomb goes off/the only problem we have here is Irish”.

    That said, I guess I did learn a lot. For example, not to sing songs about the IRA, or glorify their actions.

  25. I’m glad it’s 63% against that awful chant among young people, just shows social media amplifies the loudest not always the majority.

    Disappointing more people don’t believe in alternative to violence though.

  26. 923 respondents spread across three age groups really doesn’t seem like enough to make any real assumptions off the data

  28. “fully understnd the history of the troubles” – what metric was used for this? The rest is just polled opinion, but how do you fullyu understand the history of the troubles? That’s like fully understanding the history of Europe

  29. “Fully understand” is a bit subjective, no? I mean there’s about five different viewpoints, it’s hard not to have bias, and it’s harder still to see past your own biases. Besides, it isn’t taught in a lot of schools because it’s supposedly “too recent” history, which means that young people have to rely more on untrustworthy sources.

  31. How do they establish whether someone has a full understanding of the history of the troubles?

    If it’s simply asking the if they do, surely the dunning kruger effect will heavily be in play

  32. The fact that all five of these questions break so strongly at the 35+ age threshold makes me wonder about how much of this could also be attributed to the old-fashioned “rebelliousness of youth” angle.

  33. This article has a point, granted, but there’s also a bang of condescension and a holier-than-thou vibe coming from it. Typically enough.

  34. I’d love to see the actual poll questions because part 3 there calls everything else into question as unreliable.

  35. I keep seeing this but my question is never answered. If there was no alternative to violence, what was the alternative for? An alternative to getting massacred? Murdered for peaceful protests?

    What was violence an answer to? I had how it’s worded one way as if it was the oppressed fault

  36. It’s interesting to contrast this with nationalist opinion in the six counties, per Lucidtalk. I mean if we’re to seriously accept the lived experience of say an art critic who lived in a leafy Dublin suburb for all of his life should we also not pay mind to the people who were most brutalised by the Orange statelet and who now see no alternative to the IRA’s campaign against the apartheid state institutions?

    More interestingly, it would be fascinating to see how truly ‘informed’ the older generation are. Maybe pose a question about the Coleraine University Crisis and I suspect you will find that being informed, to them, has little to do about knowledge and more to do with parroting a very propagandistic and simple narrative about the conflict.

  39. So the older generations that were actually alive during the troubles have a less positive view of the IRA, as to be expected. Its also sad that the generation most needing to be taught the history of the troubles are the least interested in it.

  40. I think if this survey was conducted 20 years ago (and 20 years into the future) the result would be quite similar.
    It is the phenomenon of the Liberal youth becoming more Conservative as one gets older, and also the gaining of knowledge as one gets older.

  41. Does the survey include foreign born? Is it possible it reflects a new cohort that didn’t learn Irish history.

  42. Mad to think that for a year to two history wasn’t a compulsory junior certificate subject.

    Science still isn’t a compulsory subject for the junior certificate yet Irish continues to be compulsory until the Leaving.

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