Youth of Belfast 2026

The latest chapter in my project, now in its 20th year, on young people in Belfast’s working-class neighbourhoods. It is interesting to observe the subtle changes taking place, particularly in these neighbourhoods. Whilst there has been a minimal degree of rapprochement between young people across the divide over the decades, and there are now increasingly more cross-community couples in their teens, the age-old image of the enemy – long shaped, above all, by old hardliners – seems to be fading, and anger over the undeniably existing social inequality is now increasingly directed towards migrants. Although the violent riots and attacks are carried out by a small minority, and a majority in both loyalist and republican neighbourhoods do not wish to return to the violent past and long for a life of peace, tensions and mounting pressure are very much present beneath the surface.