‘Am I going to be forced to have an Irish passport?’: A qualitative study of Brexit and identity in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Abstract

Matters of identity in Northern Ireland are often premised on the idea of a neatly bipartite, constitutional division, yet academic scholarship reflects a more complex reality. Expressions of national and cultural affiliations have evolved, particularly in the decades since the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement 1998, while uncertainty about Northern Ireland’s constitutional future has remained consistent. Brexit demanded a confrontation with this constitutional question, and prompted wider reflection on the practical considerations of what identity is and means in an everyday, lived sense beyond political and electoral parameters.A decade on from the UK’s decision by referendum to leave the EU, this paper reflects on key findings from a qualitative research exercise conducted in 2019-2020 in which the intermeshed considerations of identity in constitutional and community-based terms, everyday expressions of these, and the (potential) consequences of Brexit in Northern Ireland were explored. Adopting a thematic approach to analysing our findings, we consider three elements of our data – place, symbols, and the people(s) of Northern Ireland – and in so doing, present an analysis of Brexit’s early impact on everyday experiences and perceptions of identity.