Young People’s Perspectives on the ‘New’ Irish Borderlands: Using Filmmaking to Understand Changing Perceptions of Identity and Citizenship

Since the Partition of Ireland in 1921 the Irish Border has been a place of contestation, where change needs to handled sensitively. The seven years since the Brexit Referendum, however, have threatened to undo progress made since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, with opposition to new arrangements and borders leading to a prolonged period of political instability and no functioning local government in Northern Ireland. This paper seeks to build an understanding of how young people, aged 16 to 24, who were unable to vote at the time of the Referendum, and are all part of the Post-Good Friday Agreement generation, view these ongoing frictions and developments. It uses emerging, qualitative data from a filmmaking exercise to investigate how recent years have changed their understanding of who they are and how they feel about the Irish Border, and any new borders which they have experienced as a result of the Referendum. In so doing it offers insights into how their mobilities are influenced by the Border, the impact of this on their citizenships and identities, and reflections on the future of the Irish Border in the years to come.