Precis

It’s called ‘the British betrayal’. Great Britain promised Brexit wouldn’t lead to the creation of a new border between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. It broke that promise.

Now the province’s Loyalists – those welded to the union with Great Britain – are feeling abandoned.

 “It’s almost as if we have to be ashamed of being British citizens, ashamed of our heritage and ashamed of our identity”, says one Loyalist activist.

In the two decades since the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland has kept a fractious peace but many are now wondering if this peace will hold.

 “What we’ve witnessed over the past five to ten years especially is a more divisive, dividing political community”, says James, a social worker. “It’s about celebrating battles, it’s about celebrating death…conflict and rebellion.”

ABC London Bureau Chief Samantha Hawley reports from Northern Ireland where mainly Catholic and Protestant communities are still deeply divided and traumatised by ‘the Troubles’ – the blood-stained civil war that tore Northern Ireland apart for three decades, from the 1960s.

Recently, sectarian riots broke out in Belfast, provoked by the new sea border.

“The whole area was completely filled by police in riot gear…and we had petrol bombs and everything,” says one local, who had to move his children out of the area to safety.

Across the capital, the so called ‘Peace Walls’ erected during the Troubles still play an important role in keeping hostile communities apart.

Also disturbing is the emergence of shadowy new paramilitary groups – small but violent.

Two years ago, one of these groups – ‘the New IRA’ - killed young reporter Lyra McKee who was on the streets of Londonderry during a riot.

 “They’re criminals who wear a mask of Irish republicanism to try and hide the fact that they’re criminals,” says Lyra’s sister Nichola. “In some parts of Northern Ireland, even to this day, that sort of belief system gives them legitimacy.”

But the younger generation is determined to break free of the past. Many of the so-called ‘peace babies’ believe that ending social disadvantage is the key to breaking the grip of the paramilitaries.

 “If we’re seriously tackling division, we need to tackle it head on…and operate on the growth of poverty,” says Josh, a Belfast student.

England to Northern Ireland ferry

Music

00:00

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: It’s only a jump across the water from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, but in some ways it’s like travelling back in time.

00:04

Belfast murals/Clashes with police/Loyalist march

After more than twenty years of relative peace, tensions have broken out again. Violence not seen for decades is back on the streets. Northern Ireland should be celebrating its centenary, as part of the United Kingdom, but people are angry.  They were promised that Brexit wouldn’t hurt them.  

00:13

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson: “We will protect our precious union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

00:49

England to Northern Ireland ferry. GFX map sowing EU border

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: But when the Republic of Ireland stayed part of Europe, a customs border had to be put in place. Unexpectedly that’s included Northern Ireland, and it’s infuriated the locals who are loyal to Britain.

00:58

Hawley to camera on ferry. Super:
Samantha Hawley
Reporter

I’m in the middle of the Irish Sea, and I’ve just crossed a new sea border that splits Northern Ireland from the rest of the country.  It’s come about because of Brexit, and it’s this border that could plunge Northern Ireland back into violent conflict.”

01:15

Ferry. Title: Troubled Land

Music

01:45

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: The new border came with a shock; customs checks are causing havoc, with delay and soaring costs. The truckies are fed up.

RODNEY TAYLOR, Truck driver:  The paperwork trail is very hard.

01:50

Taylor interview

On several occasions, just because of a paperwork glitch, we’re having to wait hours.

02:04

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: It’s a choke on the economy. 

02:09

RODNEY TAYLOR, Truck driver: I have no idea how they fix this.

02:11

Vehicles exit ferry

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: But it’s not just hurting people’s pockets, it’s wounded their pride. And there are more protests expected, against what’s being called the ‘British Betrayal’.

02:14

Hawley driving

The biggest trouble is in Belfast and that’s what we’re really going to go and discover – how the people in Belfast are feeling right now.

02:28

Music

02:38

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: I’ve arrived while this old industrial city is in COVID shutdown, and today it’s eerily quiet. But I’m heading to the northern suburbs where there’s a parade.

02:46

Marching parade

02:59

It’s marching season for the Protestants of Northern Ireland. The Cloughfern Young Conquerors are celebrating their British identity. They’ve descended from British colonisation four centuries ago.

03:04

Hawley meets with Brian Kerr

I arranged to meet Brian Kerr, a community worker here.

03:27

BRIAN KERR, Community worker:  The bands, and the marching fraternity is a major part in Northern Ireland. It’s part of our cultural identity. It creates a sense of belonging. The bands themselves provide a structure for an awful lot of young fellas coming through. Keeps a lot of the young ones off the streets. It's keeping them away from drugs, keeping them away from drink.

03:32

Rathcoole

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: This sprawling working class area called Rathcoole is one of the biggest public housing estates in the United Kingdom.

03:50

BRIAN KERR, Community worker:  It's an area of social deprivation. We have an awful lot of suicides and mental health issues going on.  So the community is working hard to try addressing that.

04:00

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: It’s suffered murder and mayhem over the decades. In April, violence erupted again here, when the sea border left these loyal subjects feeling they were losing their identity.

04:10

Union flag/ Hawley with Jamie Bryson

JAMIE BRYSON:  The Union flag obviously is the national flag of our country and it's a very fundamental point of our identity here in Northern Ireland, because you have to remember, that the Unionist community in Northern Ireland has been perpetually under siege almost from the formation of the state 100 years ago.

04:29

Churches/Flags

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Ever since the English drew a land border to form Northern Ireland, Catholics in the north have fought against it, wanting a united Ireland, Protestants have defended it, proud of being a province of the United Kingdom. Jamie Bryson is a staunch Loyalist, and campaigns to keep the union strong. 

04:46

Bryson addresses Loyalist crowd

JAMIE BRYSON:  "…and I think all the people standing here tonight can send a very clear message, we’re not giving our country up."

05:12

[archival] 2012 protests

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter:  In late 2012, there were mass protests against a decision to only fly the Union flag a few days a year on Belfast’s City Hall.  

05:17

Bryson interview

JAMIE BRYSON:  Nowhere else in the world would you be denied the right to fly your national flag from your prime civic building. It's almost as if we have to be ashamed of being British citizens, ashamed of our heritage and ashamed of our identity. And people in my community have simply had enough of that.  

05:31

Belfast City Hall/Flag bunting on houses

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: It’s a battle they lost. Now the imposition of a barrier between here and the rest of the United Kingdom has left them feeling cut adrift.

05:47

Bryson interview

JAMIE BRYSON:  The seeds of that have been sown over two decades, with things such as the Union flag being torn down. And that has all boiled together into I suppose what you could call somewhat of a perfect storm now.

06:00

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: How far are you willing to go to defend that flag?

JAMIE BRYSON:  Well, I mean traditionally the Unionist and Loyalist community would go to any length to defend their country.

06:10

Conflict murals

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: A century’s worth of fighting over the country is memorialised on the walls of the cities.  Illegal paramilitaries, like the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force, or UVF, and the Catholic Irish Republican Army, or IRA, plunged the country into a vicious guerrilla war.

06:20

[archival]: Falls Road march/Conflicts

06:51

What’s known as the Troubles began in the late 1960s. The Catholic Falls area of Belfast was a hotspot.

06:56

[archival]: news report

Reporter:  “The buildings you can see blazing have been set on fire by Catholics who are trying to ‘roast out’ the Protestant snipers who’ve been shooting from rooftops during the day.”

07:08

Cemetery

07:18

Butler interview in cemetery

PAUL BUTLER:  We considered ourselves freedom fighters, taking on British rule and trying to end partition in Ireland.

07:21

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Paul Butler joined the IRA when he was a teenager.

07:30

PAUL BUTLER: What you were conscious of, you were in a state, well, you're from here and you're Irish, but you didn't belong. You're a kind of outsider and you're discriminated against.

07:35

[archival]: 1972 soldiers fire on civil rights march

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: In 1972, an unapproved civil rights march was fired on by British soldiers.

07:45

Reporter: "Shooting had died away in a matter of minutes, but by that time 13 civilians had been killed…"

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Thirteen Catholics were killed,

07:57

Bloody Sunday memorial

in what’s known as “Bloody Sunday”. IRA membership surged.

08:05

Butler and Hawley in cemetery

Paul Butler was sent to jail for 15 years for shooting a policeman when he was just 17.

08:12

Butler interview

PAUL BUTLER: I was accused of murdering an RUC constable back in the day, of killing him. And that’s what I was sentenced to – and membership of the IRA.

08:20

[archival]: erection of 'peace walls'

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Barriers called “peace walls” were erected to keep the two warring tribes apart.

08:31

[archival]: bombs explode

But that didn’t stop an explosion of political terror.

08:43

Reporter:  “The Provisional wing of the IRA announced that it had been responsible. And tonight the authorities have little doubt that most, though not all, of today’s violence was organised by the Illegal Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force.”

08:50

Billy Hutchinson interview

BILLY HUTCHINSON: We were involved in the conflict. People were maimed, people were killed and all sorts of things. It wasn't a nice place to be, but that's what happened.

09:09

UVF mural

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Billy Hutchinson was a member of the UVF. At 18, he was involved in shooting two Catholic workmen. He was jailed for 16 years.

09:19

Billy Hutchinson interview

BILLY HUTCHINSON: People had to take the law into their own hands. Not everybody did it, but some of us did.  I have no regrets for anything that I did, but what I do have regrets for is every life that was taken during the Troubles.

09:32

Music

09:43

Loyalist lays wreath at memorial

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Three and a half thousand people died during the Troubles. 

09:47

Hawley and Butler walk in cemetery

Music

09:57

One of the most hallowed plots in the IRA section of the Milltown Cemetery belongs to IRA man Bobby Sands; his death 40 years ago changed the course of the conflict.

10:01

[archival montage]: Sands, jail, election

Sands became an iconic figure after he went on a hunger strike while in jail, and he stood for election to the UK parliament. Astonishing many, he won the seat with 30,000 votes;

10:17

[archival]: Sands funeral

he died a month later from starvation.  

10:35

Sands mural

His legacy was in convincing Republicans that politics was more effective than violence.

10:42

Butler interview

PAUL BUTLER:  But the whole thing that awakened in us something that the way forward was through the electoral politics, if you like.

10:50

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Paul Butler emerged from jail to become a politician in the Republican Sinn Fein party.

10:57

PAUL BUTLER: It was a step change in the Republican movement then, and he paved the way for where Sinn Fein is now, the largest party in Ireland in both jurisdictions.

11:04

Brexit poster/Unionist flag

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Billy Hutchinson also took the political path, and now leads the Progressive Unionist Party.  

11:17

Hutchinson interview

BILLY HUTCHINSON:  My present role is a politician and I will be making sure, to the best of my ability, that people don't go back to violence.

11:26

[archival]: Signing of Good Friday agreement

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Billy Hutchinson helped negotiate the peace settlement, signed on Good Friday in 1998.

11:35

Super: Tony Blair

Tony Blair:  “Today, I hope, that the burden of history can at long last start to be lifted from our shoulders.”

11:43

Belfast GVs

Music

11:52

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: A new optimism swept the country. New businesses sprang up.

11:54

Hawley takes Black Cab tour with Danny Kearney

Black Cab Tours started ten years ago.

12:00

DANNY KEARNEY:  "Good afternoon… Welcome to Belfast.”

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Danny Kearney shows tourists the old trouble spots of Belfast.

12:06

DANNY KEARNEY: You meet a lot of different people. Belfast, it's came a long way for the better. But, unfortunately, this year we've had a few problems. Hopefully it's just a blip.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Once upon a time tourists would never have come here.

DANNY KEARNEY: It's one of the most friendliest cities in the world.

12:18

But that's our problem. We're friendly to everybody else except ourselves here.

12:37

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: You worried about what you've seen in the last…?

DANNY KEARNEY: Of course I am. Of course. Because when you grew up in the Troubles here, young people don't understand. 

12:43

I'll give you an example. I seen my first killing when I was seven years of age. If you want your children or grandchildren or whatever to go through something like that there, there's something wrong with your head.

12:50

But again, we’ve dinosaurs here. There’s some people just don’t want to move on. And that’s part of the problem. It’s not about religion now, it’s about identity. One side want to be British, one side want to be Irish. And that’s part of our problem. Especially in – what would you say – the hard-line communities.

13:00

Driving past International Wall

DANNY KEARNEY:  This is what you call the International Wall. It covers different parts of the world. Nelson Mandela. It covers our own Irish history, the likes of hunger strikers. You can see Castro on the wall, “Embrace Change Together”, “Black and White should live in peace”, Turkey's Freedom Fighters…

13:22

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: It’s surprising that what started as tin sheets across the road in the Troubles has ended with around 80 peace walls, separating hard-line communities across Belfast.

13:41

Hawley with Kearney at peace wall

DANNY KEARNEY:  A lot of people when they do the tours, they say to me, well obviously it's just for tourists, and I say to them, look it's not for tourists. Twenty-three years in the peace process, these walls are still needed, believe it or not.

13:59

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter:  It's sort of unbelievable isn't it?

DANNY KEARNEY:  You can Google this and some people'll tell you the wall's coming down 2023, 2024.  I don't think this wall will come down in my lifetime, which I think is very sad.

14:12

Protective cages on houses. Peace walls

Music

14:22

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: At Bombay Street, which was a scene of devastation in the Troubles, the rebuilt houses sit under protective cages. The Catholic Falls district sits jammed up against the wall, with Loyalist Shankill area a stone’s throw away.

14:26

Hawley visits James Scott

I’ve arranged to meet a social worker at his home on the Shankill side. I wanted to find out how much has changed here since the peace. James Scott and his family bought here because it was affordable, but it’s come at a cost.

14:46

James Scott interview in home

JAMES SCOTT:  Obviously, there was hope when we seen in the '90s, when we seen the Good Friday Agreement. But what we've witnessed over the past probably five to 10 years especially, is a more divisive, dividing political community. And it's about celebrating battles, it's celebrating death, celebrating conflict and rebellion. As you can see, just behind us, we have a peace line, that barrier between two communities.

15:08

Peace wall running between houses

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: The government plans to dismantle the peace walls to encourage integration, but residents fear the communities aren’t ready.

JAMES SCOTT: They were repairing it there a few years ago, and they took down the top part of it just to repair it. And it was only down for about four to six weeks.

15:37

James Scott interview in home

And this area came from something that was quite peaceful to we were getting cars attacked, petrol bombs. It was just like all of a sudden it just erupted.

16:00

But it showed us a wee bit of a glimpse of what potentially would happen if the barrier was removed, which is quite sad.

16:14

James and son with computer game

16:22

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: James wants seven year-old Jacob and his other children to feel secure, with a good future ahead of them, but the area is mired in problems.

16:31

Shankill GVs

JAMES SCOTT: It's quite decayed, and there's not a lot of investment in the area. So there's a lot of mental health issues, there's a lot of addiction issues. And with that obviously comes issues.

16:43

Lanark Way wall/ rioting

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Just along the wall at a hotspot called Lanark Way, the protests in April against the sea border soon evolved into battles between hard-line Catholics and Protestants.

17:00

JAMES SCOTT: I had to move my kids away from the area out to their grandparents, and this whole area was completely filled with police in riot gear.

17:14

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: In this era of peace, it’s the Protestants who feel defensive and vulnerable. Few on either side in these working-class areas trust the police.

JAMES SCOTT: There's a massive

17:25

James Scott interview

issue against the police in the area, people are losing confidence – in both communities – with how the policing is being done.

17:42

Police station

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter:  Belfast is one of the most dangerous places in the world to police.

DARREN FOX:  It's armoured. We also have

17:51

Darren Fox shows fortified Land Rover

Perspex glass on the outside, very much for petrol bombing and masonry, which comes off it. The front has a grill, which comes up as you can see.

17:59

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: In the heavily fortified police compound in North Belfast, Chief Inspector Darren Fox showed me over one of their Land Rovers.

18:10

DARREN FOX: "Really robust material, you'll feel the weight in the doors."

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: "That's pretty thick, isn't it? It's a heavy door, that's for sure."

18:20

Police vehicles on road/Nick Williams in vehicle

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter:  Paramilitaries of both sides have re-emerged, and ordinary policing is done against the backdrop of a severe threat.

18:30

Music

18:40

Hawley greets Nick Williams, and walks at Lanark Gates

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Sergeant Nick Williams was on duty the night of the Lanark Gates riots.

18:55

SERGEANT NICK WILLIAMS:  That's where there was two cars hijacked, put on fire, and smashed into the gates.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter:  The gates segregate the communities, and are locked by police every night, but rioters nearly pried them apart.

19:04

SERGEANT NICK WILLIAMS: They couldn't quite get at each other, which is honestly good, but they were able to taunt each other. And in the end, there was a lot of police officers injured in the disorder to get it down and sorted, and it ended up we had to get police in, to push back that direction, and that direction at the same time.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Incredibly violent, wasn’t it?

SERGEANT NICK WILLIAMS:  It was.

19:18

Probably in this area, it’s the worst disorder, probably, for about 15 years.

19:37

Police on bikes in park

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: The police are trying to build community trust.

19:45

Hawley in park with Nick Williams

SERGEANT NICK WILLIAMS: The young people love talking about police kit, bicycles, they love it. We try to do engagement stuff. We have a football tournament planned that we're organising with some of the local primary schools we're going to hold here. So we get the kids involved. If they feel that they own the park, they’re not going to wreck it.

19:50

Peace wall

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: But the Police Service of Northern Ireland faces entrenched problems.

20:12

JAMES SCOTT: I think there's potential attacks from paramilitary organisations. It's a controlled area.

20:18

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Paramilitaries on both sides are allegedly involved with drugs and crime, and draw in disaffected teenagers.

20:23

James Scott interview

JAMES SCOTT:  There's a refusal to see and to learn from the mistakes of the past. We still have active IRA, and they're still bombing, and they're still attacking. How is that moving forward and how is that a new Ireland?

20:33

Coastline/Hawley driving

Music

20:45

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: The Good Friday Agreement was supposed to reconcile the warring sides, but it’s been fractious. At one stage the government collapsed when leaders couldn’t get along.

20:53

I’m heading an hour and a half west to Londonderry, where two years ago, the peace process suffered its biggest shock.

21:08

Creggan Estate GVs

It happened at the Creggan Estate on Derry’s outskirts. It’s a heavily Irish Republican neighbourhood. The New IRA has a foothold here; it formed in 2012, and has not accepted Northern Ireland or the peace.

21:23

[archival]: 2019 protest. Teenager throws branch

In April 2019, police launched raids, looking for weapons and explosives. As police moved in a protest was hastily organised.

Reporter:  "As an emboldened hooded teenager takes aim, first with stones, and then part of a tree trunk."

21:47

Hawley and Niall Carson/ [archival]: Petrol bombs exploding

NIALL CARSON: This thing was going for about three hours, I think, before I got there.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: It was a night of random gunfire and petrol bombs. News photographer Niall Carson arrived and set to work.

22:13

Niall's photos on computer

NIALL CARSON: I went up and took these pictures of these guys throwing petrol bombs at the police jeeps.

22:28

Photo. Lyra McKee

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Also at the riot that night was a young star reporter named Lyra McKee.

22:35

Hawley and Niall look at photos

"So where was she?"

NIALL CARSON: She was standing right beside this jeep here, and the police is up on the footpath here. And the gunman came out from behind this fence, and fired across here.

22:42

CU of video footage of Lyra at protest

Very close range, and she was hit. 

22:53

Nichola interview. Super:
Nichola McKee Corner

NICHOLA McKEE CORNER, Lyra's sister:  And of course, being a person who grew up in peacetime, would not have anticipated that standing beside a police vehicle may have posed a danger.

22:58

Family photo

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Lyra’s sister in Belfast received the call from police.

23:10

Nichola interview

NICHOLA McKEE CORNER, Lyra's sister: He said, "There was a disturbance tonight and your sister was injured." And I says, "Tell me this, is my sister still alive?" And he said, "I'm really sorry to have to tell you this, but your sister's passed away." And I just screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed.

23:15

Framed photo of Lyra

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Lyra McKee was only 29 when she was killed.

23:45

Lyra video on phone

Lyra video on phone: “It’s given me a big confidence boost. It’s shown me what I can do…”

23:50

Nichola and Hawley at table with photos, looking at video

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter:  “That was when she won the journalism award.”

23:54

She grew up in the peace era, and advocated for LGBT rights. She wrote about a new Northern Ireland, that could give people a better life.

23:58

IRA murals

But it was the old ways of the Troubles that killed her. The New IRA is small but violent. It admitted to her murder; they were aiming at police.

24:11

Nichola interview

"Who are the new IRA?"

24:26

NICHOLA McKEE CORNER, Lyra's sister: They are the people who killed my sister. That's who they are. They're criminals who wear a mask of Irish republicanism to try and hide the fact that they're criminals, because in some parts of Northern Ireland, even to this day, unfortunately, that sort of belief system gives them legitimacy and credibility within the community.

24:28

IRA signage

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: The gunman has not been caught, and no one from Creggan is saying who it is.

25:10

Photo. Lyra with friends

Lyra's family are campaigning for justice.

25:15

Nichola interview

NICHOLA McKEE CORNER, Lyra's sister: We want the gunman responsible for killing her, you know? But true justice for the people of Creggan and the people of Northern Ireland would be to get all of those people who are responsible in those criminal activities, to get them all off the streets, so that everyone is safe going forward.

25:20

Mural of Lyra

Music

25:43

Hawley walks with Anna and Karl

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Throughout the centuries, the quest for justice in Ireland has been hard fought, and rarely won. Now the vision of the future that Lyra McKee worked for lives on among other so-called ‘peace babies’.

25:52

I met up with Anna McAree and Karl Duncan in the old factory area of Londonderry. I wanted to know how they see the future, and we talked over a Guinness.

26:11

Anna interview

ANNA McAREE:  What worries me is seeing people our age, who were born in the year of the Good Friday Agreement and afterwards, these are the people that are out rioting, and I think that's why we need opportunities, because these teenagers and children obviously don't see a future for themselves in the society that Northern Ireland is now.

26:24

Karl interview

KARL DUNCAN:  If we're serious about tackling the ripped off paramilitarism in our society, if we're seriously tackling division, we need to take it head on and hit the root of it, and uproot the growth of poverty.

26:43

Anna interview

ANNA McAREE:  But I do remain hopeful, because I do want to stay here; this is where I see myself. But unless the opportunities build, then people like me, we're going to have no choice, but to try and find somewhere else.

26:56

Music

27:10

Rural shot/houses/march

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter:  Tensions are rising; last week thousands marched against the sea border. Some in masks are suspected UVF paramilitaries. They see the border as another step, pushing them into a united Ireland. People are bracing for a long violent summer.

BILLY HUTCHINSON:  Boris needs to sort it out.

27:13

Billy Hutchinson interview

For me, it's a problem around what Boris does, and how he sees us and whether we're still part of the UK and whether we still are really true British citizens that we are now. But only time will tell.

27:40

Banner burning/Protest march

SAMANTHA HAWLEY, Reporter: Meanwhile age-old discord and division sits unresolved.

27:53

Jamie Bryson interview

JAMIE BRYSON:  We have the aging political conflict, we are more divided than ever and that there's still deep hatred between both communities.

28:00

NICHOLA McKEE CORNER, Lyra's sister: I would certainly hope that these issues are ironed out. 

28:09

Nichola interview

And I also hope that people become brave enough to have the conversations that they need, the difficult ones, so that we can finally break free from the chains of the past and create a new, better Northern Ireland for everyone.

28:13

Children

Music

28:35

Credits [see below]

28:48

Out point after credits

29:14