100 years on: How do today’s Loyalist teenagers see their Northern Irish identity?

The Queen has hailed the continued peace in Northern Ireland as a credit to its people - in a message marking a hundred years since its creation.

Muted commemorations will be taking place among unionist and loyalist communities, who celebrate Northern Ireland being part of the UK.

Our correspondent Pariac O’Brien has been exploring Northern Irish identity by talking to young people born after the Good Friday agreement. In the first in our two part series, he meets Loyalist teenagers living on one side of a peace wall separating neighbourhoods.

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[Desert-Father]

"British values are....bonfires, band parades and orange orders." That must be news to people actually living in Great Britain.

[niallgrew]

"There just gonna steal everything from us" lol someone give that lad a history book...

[adrianduggan]

As a southerner it pisses me off how these young people say that we’re out to get them and destroy their culture to the ground. This is simply not true. At every corner we have tried to reach out to unionists and we will keep doing that. What’s values does Britain afford that Ireland does not? They are so similar as countries

[nathanoshea]

I'm an Irish Catholic and I couldn't give a rats about the border I see everyone as equal we're all people at the end of the day

[AG-nijm]

What on earth are "British Values?" Bonfires apparently

[Daniel]

I mean, have these “Protestants” never visited the Irish republic? The way they talk about it, you’d think Ireland were Saudi Arabia or North Korea 🤦

[dazagib]

Loyalists have long parroted the fears of their predecessors of being victimised the same way they victimised the Irish but when Ireland is reunified the people born on this island are welcome to this land. They were born here and deserve to live here as much as anyone else. They invented the threat on their own.

[adammartin]

These kids don't anything about Irish people or the South in general.

[TheIrishBosnian]

I feel bad for the protestant girl that says she wouldn't feel safe walking down the road.

The thing is, she'd be more than welcomed to come down south any day. Nobody down here really cares where your from.

You're either a good person or not.

[charlescollett]

The best thing would be a travel grant for these teenagers to see the world, so that they realize how trivial their ‘way of life’ is! Travel broadens the mind. It’s sad to see them so trapped in their mindset.

[jasonrflash]

I’m from Protestant Unionist background born in Belfast but my entire family background is from south of the border. I’ve never understood the black and white view of the makeup of the people on this island. Kids like this think that the rest of Ireland is like Andersonstown. It isn’t. The sad fact remains is that they need to get out more.

[gomey]

It's sad hearing these kids talking about being 'under threat' in a united Ireland. I'm from the Republic and I don't know anyone who would want to try deprive them of their culture and identity. This paranoia must be drummed into them by the parents or hardliners on social media because its total nonsense. Ireland is a much more diverse place these days with people of all creeds and cultures. People in the south are not like hardline nationalists in the north. We don't have the same antagonism towards unionists that some nationalists in the north do, because we were spared from the violence of the troubles. Northern nationalists might resent me saying that, but it's the truth. British people are the second largest immigrant population here after the Polish, and they all seem to like it here just fine.

[Gav_]

Really sad how deluded these young people are

[eoghan]

I think the image of the ROI many Unionists/Loyalists have is what the ROI was in about the 70s.

[Ul.B]

As a German, when you see these reactions, you can only shake your head and seriously ask yourself what has gone wrong here since the Good Friday Agreement. In Germany, Catholics and Protestants live peacefully together. There are even church events where Catholics and Protestants work side by side and neither bothers about the denomination of the other nor in everyday life asks whether someone belongs to one group or the other.

[murraymint]

Northern Ireland is like a hothouse for distorted cultural views. It was only by getting out my mind was opened.

[soviet]

Why always go to a deprived housing estate near the Shankill or Falls Road for interviews? How about getting a more diverse range of views from college/uni students, employed professionals, etc? Its always the same voices we hear from

[PapaVorPutin]

Identity crisis of the highest order. You know if you are Irish but have British values and consider yourself part of Britain. You could move to England, Scotland, or Wales and be British.

Ironically, it was the British people and government that forced the current situation for the people of N.I. by voting for and enacting Brexit. Plus the subsequent financial crisis, inflation, lack of funding and social welfare N.I. relies on to function. Loyalist are blinded by religion and hatred of "the other" while getting abused and shortchanged by the very British people/government they claim to be a part of. Yikes!

[zglwsid]

So proud of being British yet the Brits are indifferent to them lol

[ULYSSES-]

Thieves worry about other people stealing their stuff.