Northern Ireland’s Ceasefire Babies

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the UK’s most disputed region, Northern Ireland, the Unionist community has long been known for tenacity and even, say its critics, inflexibility in its determination to maintain links with Britain. Yet a new generation now seem less interested in the sectarian politics of their parents and grandparents. Born after the 1998 ‘Good Friday’ peace agreement that ended the IRA’s armed insurrection against British rule, many so-called Ceasefire Babies say they have different priorities, including jobs, mental health, LGBT+ rights and tackling climate change. Some refuse to be defined by either British or Irish identity and simply describe themselves as ‘Northern Irish.’ However, sectarian flags and threatening murals on ‘peace walls’ still define the urban landscape in some parts of Northern Ireland. And now, following Brexit, the Westminster government has agreed to a protocol which effectively puts a customs border in the Irish Sea – angering other Unionists who say it means they are being separated from mainland Britain. For Assignment, Lucy Ash travels to Northern Ireland to find out if Unionism’s Ceasefire Babies can really escape the past.

Producer: Mike Gallagher Editor: Bridget Harney

(Image: Young female loyalist band prepares to take part in the annual Relief of Derry march on August 14, 2021. Credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's assignment here on the BBC World Service comes from Northern Ireland, the United
0:12.0	Kingdom's most disputed region.
0:17.5	You can feel these drums reverberating in your chest and even in the ground beneath your
0:22.7	feet.
0:23.7	The sun is shining weekly today on the annual parade of the Daria Prentice Boys that
0:28.8	celebrates Protestant defiance of Roman Catholic troops who besiege this city in the 17th
0:35.4	century.
0:36.4	And as you can hear, the defiance continues to this very day.
0:44.7	The neon precisely consists of up to 150 pounds and we pre-arranged the old world city
0:51.8	and then back over towards the Hosanna States and we do this to commemorate those that
0:56.1	Paris didn't say the city.
0:58.6	These are the Protestants known as unionists who want Northern Ireland to stay in the UK,
1:04.8	unlike mainly Catholic nationalists who want to unite with the Irish Republic to the south.
1:11.1	We're in the world city of Derry which unionists call London Derry.
1:15.5	Here in 1689 their ancestors saw off an attempt by a Catholic king to starve them into surrender.
1:23.6	What was the siege of Derry?
1:25.6	Well the siege of London Derry took place, 113 young apprentice boys shut the gates of
1:30.7	the city against the approaching forces of King James II.
1:35.4	Gates and Wall saved the Protestants of Derry as Billy Moore explains.
1:40.4	He runs the Apprentice Boys Association.
1:43.4	For them, events three and a half centuries ago still resonate.
1:47.7	King James II arrived believing the city would capitulate, the inhabitants responded with
	...

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