A range of stakeholders have voiced opposition to drawing a line under Troubles prosecutions, after research suggests growing support for the idea among younger people.

The University of Liverpool research also found that unionists are much more in favour of drawing a line under the past than nationalists.

The findings come from the university's 2024 Northern Ireland General Election survey.

It found nationalists were much more in favour of continuing prosecutions than unionists, with 59.2% and 43.5% support for the policy respectively.

placeholder image — A range of stakeholders have voiced opposition to drawing a line under Troubles prosecutions, after research suggests growing support for the idea among younger people. Pictured is an IRA mural in west Belfast in February 2006.

Unionists were more in favour of ending prosecutions than nationalists, with 36.4% and 21.6% support respectively.

Among 18–25-year-olds, 41% supported ending prosecutions, rising to 50% among third level education students.

This dropped to only 30.3% support for drawing a line among the 45–65 age bracket, the Irish News reported.

Liverpool University's Prof Peter Shirlow said younger people see legacy as "something belonging to an older era," adding that if the trends persist, there could be “an even greater shift towards ending prosecutions within a decade".

However the DUP said it is vital that justice is still pursued in the interests of victims.

The party's MLA Stephen Dunne said: “In a society still marked by deep wounds, trauma, and loss, it is vital that the pursuit of justice is not abandoned.

"As the Government sets out on a new course to address legacy issues, the DUP’s position remains unchanged and grounded in long-held principles. Justice must always be a possibility and that door must never be closed."

Kenny Donaldson, Director of Troubles victims group South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) strongly rejected the "spin".

He believes that UK Government "conditioning" over 25 years has caused victims of terrorism to give up hope of prosecutions - and instead sees them opting to try and prevent others from pursuing the UK state.

Victims of republican terrorism account for 60% of all Troubles deaths, he said, but victims believe the criminal justice system has been "manipulated" through prisoner releases, decommissioning, "burying" ballistics and DNA, OTR letters, Royal Prerogatives of Mercy and the Irish State's policy of non-prosecution of pre 1998 crimes.

Civil actions and inquests have not served terror victims either, he said.

People might feel inclined to draw a line under the past if "terror never visited their own door" or if they don't feel it is important to stop the past being rewritten with modern narratives, he added.

Daniel Holder, Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, a non-governmental human rights organisation, responded that the courts have already found an amnesty to be unlawful.

"Whilst this makes interesting reading we should not lose sight that the rights of victims are embedded in human rights law and can require effective investigations and prosecutions," he told the News Letter.

“The previous Conservative government legislated for an amnesty scheme which would have curtailed prosecutions in legacy cases and unsurprisingly the Northern Ireland courts found it to be unlawful.

“What did cruelly happen was that the legacy act a year ago shut down hundreds of legacy investigations in the courts, ombudsman and PSNI, which families had waited years for and left them without a viable alternative."

The survey was conducted by Social Market Research, Belfast, between 19 July and 27 August 2024 and included 2,034 participants, with a margin of error of ±3.1%.