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Peace Without Prosperity? Child Poverty in Northern Ireland Since the Troubles
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 is widely credited for bringing about the end of ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. It granted Northern Ireland a degree of self-determinism and achieved self-governance, while also beginning a process of demilitarisation. While sporadic violence in Northern Ireland is ongoing, the Agreement was a key step towards peace. However, it did not dismantle deep structural inequalities, resulting in entrenched child poverty- defined by UNICEF as the deprivation of basic needs such as nutrition, shelter, education, and healthcare- in communities most affected by the Troubles.
The Good Friday Agreement arose from three decades of armed ethno-nationalist conflict. Known as the Troubles, the conflict was fought between the overwhelmingly Protestant Unionists on one side and the Catholic Nationalists on the other, and had a seismic impact on the structure of Northern Irish society, which became segregated along sectarian lines, something that we will explore using the example of Belfast.
This segregation was often physical. ‘Peace lines’- large walls separating Protestant and Catholic communities -were constructed to reduce violence, many of which still exist today, such as those between Shankill Road and Falls Road. While effective in limiting direct conflict, these barriers reinforced social and economic isolation. As a result, communities became increasingly insular, and areas already affected by violence experienced deepening urban decay and economic decline.
The Troubles’ spatial impact extended beyond neighbourhood division. Belfast city centre was protected by a ‘ring of steel,’ a network of security measures designed to prevent paramilitary attacks. This ensured the city’s economic core remained relatively stable and attractive to investment, while suburban areas - exposed to violence and military presence- saw infrastructure degrade and businesses withdraw. The urban-suburban division was cemented by many factors. Belfast’s secure city centre attracted investment, while conflict-affected suburbs saw disinvestment and decline. With economic infrastructure, human capital, and business premises degraded by conflict, Belfast’s GDP fell by as much as 20% between 1966 and 1998. As a result, the spatial and economic inequalities created during the Troubles were not resolved by peace, but became embedded in Northern Ireland’s post-conflict landscape.
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw efforts to regenerate Belfast by investing in the city centre and waterfront. However, this only perpetuated the divide between the city centre and peripheral working-class areas. Ken Sterrett, a Northern Irish urban planner and designer, describes the approach to Belfast’s development as neoliberal urbanism, a market-first approach that often results in the most wealthy areas becoming increasingly wealthy while underdeveloped areas are left behind. Furthermore, the unique issues faced by Northern Ireland in comparison to the rest of the UK have meant that councils have been forced to spend much more on public order and public housing than in other parts of the country, necessitated by the ongoing need for policing and intelligence and the legacy of colonial housing discrimination.
Relative peace in Northern Ireland, therefore, has not generated the economic revival that may have been anticipated. These spatial and economic divides did not disappear after 1998, and they continue to shape everyday life. For children growing up in Northern Ireland today, this legacy is particularly stark. For one, it means that the social stratification of the Troubles will often dictate their home, social group, and class. As the Belfast Mobility Project explores, Protestant and Catholic communities remain divided not only in residence but also in movement, with many individuals living and socialising within confined geographic areas. This is a form of spatialised inequality, where the geography of conflict continues to determine life chances.
These divisions are also reflected in patterns of deprivation. Nine of the ten most deprived areas in Northern Ireland are predominantly Catholic, highlighting the persistence of historical inequalities. Consequently, many children grow up in environments characterised by limited economic opportunity, inadequate housing, and reduced access to services. In this way, child poverty is not simply a contemporary issue, but the direct legacy of conflict-driven inequality. Joseph McNeill runs the Ardoyne Youth Club in north Belfast and describes how “the infrastructure and the support from the government is definitely not here at the minute,” and how the children he works with “don’t have the same support mechanisms” as children from wealthier parts of the city. Oral testimony corroborates existing statistics. Around a fifth of Northern Irish children live in relative poverty, according to the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO), and this is cemented by some of the worst childcare provision in the UK; Northern Ireland has the lowest level of nursery provision in the United Kingdom, a barrier to workplace entry for parents.
The consequences of poverty are broad and can be lifelong. In regards to education, the NIAO states that “Evidence shows that the gap in attainment between children growing up in poverty and their peers starts early and lasts throughout school. By the time they reach primary school, children from low-income families are already up to a year behind middle-income children in terms of cognitive skills.” Evidence of academic underperformance in Northern Ireland is clear- the percentage of school leavers with five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C is 37% amongst Protestant boys from low-income households and 47% amongst low-income Catholic boys. This attainment gap reproduces the economic divides created during the Troubles, limiting social mobility across generations. Children who grow up impoverished are therefore less likely to achieve academic success, limiting their ability to break out of the cycle of poverty. As one study described, marginalised groups such as BAME students and students from travelling families were also far more likely to be marginalised within the education system, leading to lower attainment and lessening the ability of these students to escape the cycle of poverty.
The impacts of childhood poverty in Northern Ireland stretch further than the classroom, however. As the NIAO describes, “Research has shown that childhood poverty is linked to higher levels of infant mortality and death in early adulthood, as well as poorer mental health, obesity and chronic illness.” Indeed, children living in poverty are up to four times more likely to develop a mental health condition by the age of 11 than their peers. The health consequences of poverty are unsurprising, when it is considered that by 2024, the number of children in Northern Ireland who lived in households experiencing food insecurity had risen to 130,000. As Joseph McNeill describes, around 70% of the children in the Ardoyne area are recipients of free school meals. The systemic roots of poverty, therefore, can have dire consequences for children and young people. They will often grow up lacking economic stability and security, meaning that they can be vulnerable to food insecurity. Similarly, as education and self-development become secondary to survival, they may lack the ability to achieve their full potential.
Has peace in Northern Ireland brought prosperity, therefore? In short, no. While certain areas of the country have had funding poured into them, neoliberal urbanism has meant that other parts of the country have struggled to develop at all. Peace ended violence, but it did not equalise opportunity, and in Northern Ireland, the geography of conflict has become the geography of poverty. For children growing up in its shadow, the legacy of the Troubles is not history: it is a lived reality.
In this episode Camille discusses the post conflict experience of the Children in Belfast following the Good Friday Agreement. She is a Citizen journalist with us on a placement organised with Oxford University Career Services.
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