Young citizens in changing times: Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland

The importance of politics to young people in Northern Ireland, their knowl edge of basics like voting age, the salience of politics in their families, and their interest in participating eventually themselves were investigate d in this study of young people in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Whether or no t they saw a future for themselves in Northern Ireland was found to be rela ted to their perceptions of the fairness or unfairness of the system, and t hese were both mediated by their feelings of national identity. Participant s who thought of themselves as British or Irish were more likely to give hi gher ratings of importance to politics than those who characterized themsel ves as Northern Irish, Catholic, or Protestant; and those who identified th emselves as Irish were more likely to do so than those who identified thems elves as British. Cross-community contact was similar for both groups and w as not related to attitudes toward politics.