‘Why would we want to be part of the UK?’ Young people will probably soon deliver a united Ireland

‘While politics is still stuck in the mire, Northern Ireland’s peace babies have their focus trained on climate crisis, human rights, education and mental health.’ Photograph: David Young/PA

The DUP leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, expressed his confidence this week that there won’t be a united Ireland in his lifetime. But as support for unionism wanes among Northern Ireland’s young people, could the so-called peace babies have a different future in mind?

A recent Lucid Talk/Sunday Times survey showed that 57% of 18 to 24-year-olds in Northern Ireland would vote “yes” to reunifying Ireland if a border poll were held today, despite there being no official campaign or unity plan in place. More than 600,000 people have been born in Northern Ireland since the signing of the Good Friday agreement, and they have grown up during a sustained period of peace that has given rise to a new set of priorities. This is a generation that wants more rights, more progressive change – and to confine the division of the past to the dustbin of history.