{"id":485859,"date":"2026-05-15T10:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/485859\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:54:13","slug":"most-northern-ireland-residents-who-voted-for-brexit-believe-it-has-failed-poll-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/485859\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Northern Ireland residents who voted for Brexit believe it has failed, poll finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The majority of voters in Northern Ireland<\/a>, including among those who voted to leave the EU, agree Brexit<\/a> has been more of a failure than a success, according to new research from Queen\u2019s University<\/a> Belfast. <\/p>\n

Ten years on from the referendum, the university found 72 per cent of Northern voters agreed with the statement, and 60 per cent among those who voted to leave. <\/p>\n

The study, published on Friday, also found two-thirds of voters \u2013 66 per cent \u2013 believed Brexit had made the break-up of the UK more likely. <\/p>\n

It showed a \u201cstrong\u201d preference for closer ties with the EU; 59 per cent of voters opposed further loosening of UK-EU ties and 57 per cent supported the UK rejoining. <\/p>\n

The research was carried out for Queen\u2019s by Belfast-based polling company LucidTalk. It is the 15th report in the university\u2019s Testing the Temperature series, led by professors David Phinnemore and Katy Hayward, surveying the views of the North\u2019s voters on Brexit, the Northern Ireland Protocol<\/a> and the Windsor Framework<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It was conducted between April 17th and 20th this year using a weighted sample of 1,050 respondents from across Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n

In the Brexit referendum, held on June 23rd, 2016, Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU by 56 per cent to 44 per cent, but the UK as a whole voted narrowly to leave, by 52 per cent to 48 per cent. <\/p>\n

The research indicated voters \u201cremain divided\u201d over the legitimacy of the Brexit vote, with 40 per cent agreeing it was based on a fair democratic process and 48 per cent disagreeing. <\/p>\n

It also found the Brexit-related identities of \u201cleaver\u201d or \u201cremainer\u201d continued to be \u201cvery important\u201d to a majority \u2013 52 per cent \u2013 of voters, and this was particularly the case among leavers and older voters.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Newton Emerson: Compulsory Irish in a united Ireland? Unionists won\u2019t like thatOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Hayward said the importance of identity to one in two voters constituted an \u201cadditional layer of division broadly on top of existing ones\u201d. <\/p>\n

She said the dominant theme in comments from those surveyed was \u201cBrexit is a failure\u201d and this was for two distinct reasons. <\/p>\n

\u201cRemainers say it\u2019s a failure because it was an act of national self-harm and they didn\u2019t want it anyway, and for leavers it\u2019s a failure because Northern Ireland never got Brexit,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne person said, \u2018I voted leave to get rid of European laws and that\u2019s about all that they kept\u2019. So there\u2019s a sense that it wasn\u2019t fully achieved in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I think you see that sense that it\u2019s been more a failure in Northern Ireland, and particularly that view among leavers, that\u2019s about 10 percentage points higher than the figure in [Great Britain].\u201d <\/p>\n

The study also found that while most Northern voters remained \u201cbroadly accepting\u201d of the Windsor Framework \u2013 Northern Ireland\u2019s post-Brexit trading arrangements \u2013 support was \u201cweakening\u201d amid \u201cdeclining public understanding\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Matthew O\u2019Toole: Nigel Farage\u2019s success gives Ireland an urgent deadlineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A total of 58 per cent said they had a \u201cgood understanding\u201d of the framework \u2013 the lowest level since polling began. Forty-six per cent now regarded it as \u201con balance a good thing for Northern Ireland\u201d \u2013 the lowest level since June 2021 \u2013 and 46 per cent view it as an appropriate means of addressing Brexit in Northern Ireland, down from 61 per cent in summer 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the UK and EU negotiating new agreements that are expected to reduce trade frictions arising from the Windsor Framework, it will be important that the new arrangements are clearly and reliably explained,\u201d Phinnemore said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are not, then this will only further damage trust levels in the UK government and the EU.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The majority of voters in Northern Ireland, including among those who voted to leave the EU, agree Brexit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,6504,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,954,29624,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-485859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-brexit","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-northern-ireland","20":"tag-queens-university","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116578226454510381","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}