People more optimistic about improving cross-community relations in NI, report states

MORE than half of the Northern Ireland population believe community relations have improved since five years ago, a major report has suggested.

Three-quarters of people questioned also believed Protestant and Catholic culture added richness to the diversity of society, while more people felt annoyed by republican/loyalist murals, kerb paintings and flags.

Each year a snapshot of the state of community relations is presented by the Northern Ireland Good Relations Indicators report.

It combines results from surveys including the social attitudes of adults and 16-year-olds as well as PSNI statistics on issues like hate crimes.

The key findings showed 52% of adults and 59% of young people believed relationships between Catholics and Protestants were better than five years ago.

This also represents an improvement from last year with figures of 47% and 52% respectively.

Also, 91% of people questioned said they felt they could be open about their cultural identity in their neighbourhood, with 89% saying the same about their workplace.

Over half (58%) of schools were involved in shared education with another school in the last year.

Regarding attitudes to ethnic minorities, 55% of young people and 77% of adults said they felt favourable towards people from these groups, an increase from last year of 6% and 10% respectively.

Reported hate crimes reduced in 2016/17, with 694 sectarian and 660 racially motivated hate crimes reported, compared to 1,001 and 853 the previous year.

More people said they had been annoyed by both republican and loyalist murals, kerb paintings and flags.

Of those questioned, 24% objected to the republican symbols, and 29% to loyalist symbols. The previous year this was 18% and 23% respectively.

Three-quarters (76%) of people believed the traditions of both the Catholic and Protestant cultures added to the richness of Northern Ireland society.

A smaller proportion (64%) said the same about the culture of minority ethnic groups. Three in 10 adults (30%) felt they had an influence on decisions in their neighbourhood, with 29% feeling the same about decisions across Northern Ireland.

This was much lower for young people, with figures of 11% and 8% respectively.

The report also illustrated how community relations have fluctuated during key events throughout the last 30 years.

In 1994, the year of the Provisional IRA ceasefire, less than 30% of people questioned believed community relations were improving.

This climbed to just under half in 1998 against the backdrop of the Good Friday Agreement, plummeting to below 30% again in 2001 during the Holy Cross dispute.

The high point of over 60% occurred in 2007, a period described in the report as ‘settled devolution’, before dropping again to around 50% in 2012 during the flag protests.