‘Our lives are still fractured’: Northern Ireland’s ‘peace babies’

Those born about the time of the Good Friday Agreement say lives still marred by trauma and political vacuum.

Belfast, Northern Ireland — The political leaders caught up in the 30-year Troubles of Northern Ireland were so consumed with fighting over “land, soil, territory”, that they completely neglected the environmental welfare of that very same land, soil and territory, say young people born since the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) 25 years ago.

This is just one of the dismal legacies of the Troubles that young people born at about the time of the 1998 GFA – also known as “peace babies” – say they have been left to clean up.

At the One Young World 2023 Summit for young people held in October, marine life researcher Heidi McIlvenny said much of Northern Ireland’s most precious natural resources – including its marine and freshwater ecosystems that sustain life itself – have been badly neglected and mismanaged.

“Twelve percent of all species on this island are threatened with extinction,” she said.

The Good Friday Agreement, which brought more than three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland to an end, marked its 25th anniversary in April this year.