Public Attitudes to Peace Walls (2015)

Public Attitudes to Peace Walls (2015)
Survey Results
Ulster University
Table 8: Generally speaking, how often do you interact with people outside of your own
community background? (By gender)
Total (%) Male (%) Female (%)
Very often 30 29 30
Often 20 14 25
Occasionally 18 23 14
Rarely 12 12 12
Never 20 22 19
In terms of religion, the pattern of contact with people outside the community was generally
similar for both Catholics and Protestants (Table 9). However, Catholics (82%) were somewhat
more likely to regard this contact in a positive light than Protestants (71%). Women (83%) were
more likely than men (74%) to experience contact as mostly or always positive, and this was
also true of people under 35 (83%) compared with those over 55 (75%). The inclusion of women
and younger people in community leadership may be an important factor in shaping wider
community attitudes.
Table 9: Is interaction with other communities positive or negative? (by religion)
Total (%) Protestant (%) Catholic (%)
Always positive 38 37 37
Mostly positive 41 34 45
Neither positive or negative 18 25 14
Mostly negative 3 5 3
Always negative 0 0 0
While there was some evidence of engagement with others in general, there was much less
evidence of contact with people on the other side of a physical structure at neighbourhood level
(Table 10a). In total, 22% of all respondents reported that they interacted very often or often,
whereas 42% reported that they had no contact across their nearest peace wall. Interestingly,
Catholics (20%) were less likely to have regular interaction than Protestants (22%). Although
women were marginally more likely to have regular interaction than men, the variation in
interaction was much greater when broken down by age (Table 10b). Whereas 15% of the over
55s responding to the survey reported that they often or very often had contact across the wall,
29% of those under 35 were in greater contact.
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