A few thoughts on the 23rd anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, as someone born in 1998. (Okay, my first thought is that I'm turning 23 next month, which is - eek! Scary!) [Thread]

We were brought up as the Good Friday Generation, the generation of peace, the kids who were going to change NI forever. 23 years on, I'm grateful that we are largely at peace and there will be no return to the past.

Particularly, I would like to remember the mood from 2011 - 2016. Yes, the flag protests were bad (much much worse than this!) but there was a feeling of steady progress and that this wouldn't destabilise us. (Disclaimer: wasn't perfect at all, still terrible for many.)

Needless to say, Brexit and the political chaos since then did bring tensions into the light and made it much harder to have a cooperative mindset between political leaders. But it was the straw on the camel's back, not the cause.

GFA institutions have often been said to have been ignored, but:

NSMC: met 24 times, last Dec 2020
BIC met 34 times, last Nov 2020
BIIGC met 21 times, last Spring 2019

After 3 years of no government in NI, the Assembly has been running since January 2020.

But part 6 of the GFA on "rights, safeguards and equality of opportunity" has not been implemented to the fullest. Reconciliation, victims of violence, economic, social and cultural issues still need work. Paramilitary control over communities needs work.

We didn't have gay marriage and abortion until 2019, and only because Westminster passed legislation to force it through. We still have difficulties with the implementation of abortion. That's horrific in 2021.

The GFA has institutionalised sectarianism. 23 years on, people are still educated, live and work in segregated communities. That is a resounding failure and one of the ways in which the GFA doesn't work and isn't fit for 2021.

The need to designate unionist/nationalist/other at the Assembly marginalises non-sectarian parties who don't care about what community you're from, but instead about housing, health, education, green and feminist policies.

We also have to note that the pre-dominance of unionism/nationalism marginalises all of the immigrants to NI who don't have a stake in this. In fact, immigration since 1998 has made NI infinitely better and contributed to the peace process.

Education has only worsened. It's divided in two ways: Catholic/Protestant and grammar/secondary. I was the last year to sit the 11+ in 2008. The transfer test is even more stressful and selective for children. Education needs a radical overhaul.

Homelessness has visibly worsened in the last few years in Belfast (but let's remember the amazing work charities do). There's the potential for renting to go the same way it did in Dublin and we don't need that at all. We don't need gentrification, but more social housing.

Despite not remembering the Troubles, we still have to live with its legacies. NI still has economic deprivation, social segregation and a long way to go. We need help. We need to focus on giving young people a future.

Yet, NI people are still the most resilient and humorous people I know. We have feminist, queer, green activism. We have a thriving arts sector. We have people who are working hard (and un-noticed) every day to make their communities better.

I want a future in NI where it doesn't matter what your perception of the country you're in is. As Benedict Anderson said, nations are imagined communities. The beauty of no border on the island of Ireland or in the Irish Sea is that NI existed in two places at once.

Schrödinger's nation, if you will. We live in segregated communities with two different visions of what country we are in. Maybe that is the only way to have peace. I'm not so sure. I want genuine reconciliation and an integrated country.

An additional note: it's very very strange to go from the deprivation of East Belfast to living in Bruges, one of the safest and richest cities in Europe. There is, and I stress, absolutely no crime here. And my personal national identity doesn't matter at all. [end thread]