Shock results in northern Ireland quiz

IssueMarch 2013
News by PN

Our main interest was whether there was a knowledge gap between the generations who lived through the last phase of significant military conflict in the north of Ireland (the 1970s and 1980s) and those who came afterwards.

The result was: yes and no.

The one respondent under 25 (an 18-year-old) had no knowledge of the conflict at all (but sufficient cynicism to get a respectable 14 points out of a possible maximum of 35).

Much to our surprise, the next lowest-scoring group of readers was in the age bracket 45-55. The people who grew up with the Troubles. They got an average score of 18.5.

The three other age brackets (25-35, 35-45, and over-55), all got roughly the same average score: 24 out of 35.

All very puzzling. We’d be grateful for more results!