Public Attitudes to Peace Walls (2015)

Public Attitudes to Peace Walls (2015)
Survey Results
Ulster University
3. Overall Survey Results
The following section sets out the survey results using a series of themed headings. In addition
to the issues covered in the 2012 survey, participants were also asked to consider the term
‘community consent’ and reflect on what this term meant. In a related set of questions,
respondents were also asked to reflect on their interactions with the community that resided on
‘the other side’ of their nearest peace wall.
3.1 Length of time resident has lived in their property and opinions on the
area as a place to live
To allow us to understand some of the context, respondents were asked to indicate how long
they lived at their current address. Table 4 indicates that the majority of respondents (54%) have
lived in their property for ‘more than 15 years’. This supports evidence from the 2012 survey that
indicated that people living in interface areas are mostly long-term residents (59% of respondents
in 2012 indicated that they had lived in their property for more than 10 years) and survey
responses are therefore based on extensive ‘lived experience’ of life beside a peace wall, including
times of conflict and of relative calm.
Table 4: How long have you lived at this property?
Total (%) Protestant (%) Catholic (%)
Less than 1 year 7 6 7
1 to 5 years 17 21 14
6 to 10 years 10 11 8
More than 10 years 12 14 13
More than 15 years 54 48 58
When asked about the quality of life in their community, 24% of Catholics and 31% of Protestants
emphasised the strong sense of solidarity (Table 5). This finding was consistent among people
of all ages and true for both men and women. However, more Catholics (23%) than Protestants
(11%) believed that their area was a good place to bring up children. It is worth noting that
younger adults (13%) were over twice as likely as people over 35 (6%) to emphasise positive social
networks.
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