Religious and national identities in Northern Ireland in transition

Presenter: Stefanie Doebler, Queen's University Belfast

Author: Stefanie Doebler

Co-author(s): Ian Shuttleworth

Religious and national identities are known to be strongly correlated in Northern Ireland. The Troubles were characterized by a demarcation between Protestant/British versus Catholic/Irish identities. Religion and nationality overlap and are still seen almost as being synonymous. However, there is reason to believe the position is changing; the 2011 Census showed residential segregation had decreased since 2001, and that around 25% of the population claimed to be ‘Northern Irish’, and a growing proportion stated they had no religion.

This paper examines changes in religious identities over a ten-year period and relates these to national identity in 2011. We analyse data from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS, 2001, 2011-waves) – a Census-linked study of records based on health-card registrations. The NILS represents c. 28% of the population of Northern Ireland (N = c. 500000), therefore analyses across religious sub-groups are possible. The research questions are: • Have significant parts of the population left their church, exchanged their religious affiliation for a non-religious identity between 2001 and 2011? • Which (religious) groups of the population are more likely to endorse which national identity categories (as asked in the Northern Ireland Census 2011)? • Are certain national identities more related to religious change (switching between identities) than others?

Our results suggest that there are significant differences in national identity endorsements between religious groups. Also, national identities appear to be influenced by religious change. Different social strata (by age, education, tenure) exhibit different likelihoods of endorsing Northern Irish, British, Irish and other national identities.