The project finds that half of the public in Northern Ireland (51%) favour Northern Ireland staying in the UK and just less than one third favour Irish unity (30%), with the rest either indicating that they ‘don’t know’ or would not vote. Almost two thirds of the public in the Republic of Ireland would vote for Irish unity (64%).

The project also finds that the public, North and South, are open to the idea of the South investing one tenth of its budget surplus to prepare for a united Ireland. More people in the North are in favour (44%) than opposed (28%) and the remainder either ‘would like to know more’ before coming to a view or ‘don’t know’. Similarly, in the South there is more agreement (36%) than disagreement (26%).

The North and South series is a collaboration between The Irish Times and ARINS, a joint research project of the Royal Irish Academy and the Keough-Naughton Centre for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. It consists of two major, in-depth opinion polls conducted simultaneously in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It is jointly funded by The Irish Times and ARINS, which is dedicated to Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South.

This is the second year of the project, and it is intended to continue in the future. 

Speaking about the project, Professor Muiris MacCarthaigh, Head of Politics and International Relations from the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s said: “This project is a fantastic example of the collaborative research that Queen’s academics are conducting on major political and constitutional matters locally and internationally. This work will be of great interest to politicians and other policy-makers, as well as to current and future students of politics across the whole island, and of course the wider public.”

The findings are reported in a series of articles in The Irish Times by John Garry, Professor of Political Behaviour from the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, and director of The Democracy Unit research centre; Brendan O’Leary, Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy, Honorary Professor of Political Science at Queen’s, and Chair of the Public Opinion Committee of ARINS; and Dr Jamie Pow, Lecturer in Political Science at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, and deputy lead of The Democracy Unit. 

Speaking about the research, Professor Garry said: “The ARINS/Irish Times study sheds light on how people, North and South, think about all the complicated issues related to our constitutional future. The findings will inform politicians and the public about what people’s views are and how flexible those views might be.”

Professor Brendan O’Leary commented: “This ambitious and systematic study enables direct comparison between North and South on all aspects of the debate on potential Irish unification. It covers public views on economics, symbols, identity, and much more.”

Dr Pow added: “The data allows for fascinating analysis of the views of different sets of party supporters, and the opinions of people from different community backgrounds.”

The research was conducted by Ipsos in Northern Ireland and separately by Ipsos B & A in the Republic of Ireland. Both surveys were conducted among a representative sample of more than 1,000 people across all constituencies in each jurisdiction.  

Further findings will be published over the coming days and weeks in the Irish Times. For more information, please visit: https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/12/02/project-aims-to-present-unbiased-information-on-the-unification-question/  

 

Media

Media enquiries to Zara McBrearty at Queen's Communications Office on email: z.mcbrearty@qub.ac.uk