Experience of Irish culture and heritage by adults in Northern Ireland
AD
31/10/2024
Experience of Irish culture and heritage by adults in Northern Ireland
Findings from the Continuous Household Survey 2023/24
An Official
Statistics publication
Published by:
Analytics Division
Coverage: Northern Ireland
Frequency: Biennial
Publication Date: 28 November 2024
Frequency: Biennial
Publication Date: 28 November 2024
Introduction
The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement committed the Government to ‘recognise the importance of respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity, including in Northern Ireland, the Irish language, Ulster-Scots and the languages of the various ethnic minorities, all of which are part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland.’ In addition, the NI Executive has a statutory duty to adopt strategies setting out how it proposes to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language, and to enhance and develop the Ulster-Scots language, heritage and culture. DfC leads in the development of these strategies and, through sponsorship of the North-South Language Body, in promoting the use of Irish and Ulster-Scots across all NI Government Departments and agencies.
This bulletin follows a headline bulletin released in July 2024 and provides findings from the 2023/24 Continuous Household Survey on the experience of Irish culture and heritage by adults in Northern Ireland. These findings are used to inform the development, monitoring and evaluation of policy. More information relating to the CHS, methodology, definitions and the interpretation of the figures can be found in the Definitions & technical notes section. Data tables are available in Excel and ODS format. The questions that were asked in the CHS 2023/24 are available here.
Note: Data collection for the 2023/24 CHS was carried out using a mix of telephone and face-to-face interviewing modes, a similar approach to that used in 2022/23. For 2020/21 and 2021/22 data collection was by telephone interviewing due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There was also a reduction in the number of questions between 2020/21-2022/23. As a result, the figures from 2020/21 onwards are not directly comparable to previous years due to the significant changes to the survey in terms of methodology and content. More information is available on the NISRA website.
Lead statistician: Amy Lewis
Engagement with Irish culture and heritage
Engagement with Irish culture and heritage is defined as either participating in an Irish cultural activity or attending an Irish cultural event. Just under a quarter of adults (23%) had engaged with Irish culture and heritage within the previous year, with similar proportions of men and women engaging (21% and 24% respectively).
Analysis by religion showed that adults from a Catholic background were more likely to have engaged with Irish culture (36%) than both adults from a Protestant background (11%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (21%).
When analysed by age, adults aged 44 and under were more likely to have engaged with Irish culture and heritage than those aged 45 and over in the previous year (26% and 19% respectively).
There were differences in the proportions of adults engaging in Irish culture and heritage when analysed by disability and deprivation. Adults who do not have a disability (25%) were more likely to have engaged with Irish culture and heritage than adults who do have a disability (18%). Similarly, adults living in the most deprived areas were more likely to have engaged with Irish culture compared to those living in the least deprived areas (27% and 19% respectively).
There was no difference in the proportions of adults living in urban areas and those living in rural areas who had engaged in Irish culture and heritage within the last year (23% and 22% respectively). Furthermore, there was no difference between those adults who have dependants and those who do not have dependants (24% and 22% respectively).
Local Government District
In 2023/24, around three in every ten adults living in these areas had engaged with Irish culture in the previous year; Fermanagh and Omagh (30%), Belfast City (29%), Derry City and Strabane, Mid Ulster, and Newry, Mourne and Down (all 27%). In contrast, around one in seven adults living in these areas had engaged with Irish culture; Mid and East Antrim (14%) and Ards and North Down (13%).
Note: Figures should be used with caution due to a small sample size which may result in less precise estimates.
Participation in an Irish cultural activity
In 2023/24, one in every seven adults (15%) had participated in an Irish cultural activity within the previous year. Women were more likely to have participated in an Irish cultural activity than men in the previous year (17% and 14% respectively).
A quarter of adults from a Catholic background (25%) participated in an Irish cultural activity within the last year which was greater than the proportion of adults from a Protestant background (6%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (14%).
Analysis by age shows that adults aged 45 and over were less likely to have participated in an Irish cultural activity than those aged 44 and under in the previous year (17% and 13%, respectively).
Analysis by deprivation level showed that adults living in the most deprived areas were more likely to have participated in Irish cultural activity than those living in the least deprived areas (20% and 12% respectively). In contrast, there was no difference in the proportions of adults participating in Irish culutral activities when analysed by disability, dependants and those living in either urban or rural areas.
Types of Irish cultural activity
The most frequently cited Irish cultural activities that adults participated in within the previous year were ‘playing traditional Irish music’ (5%) and ‘a féile’ (4%), with ‘Irish dancing class’, ‘an Irish language class’, ‘an Irish language or music Feis’ and ‘Fleadh Cheoil’ all at 3%.
Attendance at Irish cultural events
In 2023/24, one in every five adults (20%) attended an Irish cultural event within the previous year. Similar proportions of men and women stated that they had attended an Irish cultural event within the last year (19% and 22% respectively).
When analysed by age adults aged 44 and under were more likely to have attended Irish cultural events than those aged 45 and over (24% and 16% respectively).
There were further differences in proportions of adults attending an Irish cultural event when analysed by religion, disability and deprivation level. A higher proportion of adults from a Catholic community had attended an Irish cultural event (33%) than both those from a Protestant community (10%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (17%).
Similarly, adults living in the most deprived areas were more likely to have attended an Irish cultural event (24%) than adults living in the least deprived areas (16%). In contrast, adults who have a disability were less likely to have attended an Irish cultural event than those who do not have a disability (16% and 22% respectively).
Similar proportions of adults who have dependants and those who do not have dependants had attended an Irish cultural event (22% and 19% respectively). Furthermore, there was no difference in the proportions of adults living in urban areas who attended an Irish cultural event compared with those living in rural areas (both 20%).
Types of Irish cultural events
The most frequently cited Irish cultural events that adults attended within the last year were ‘traditional Irish music concert’ (9%) and ‘Irish dancing (6%). Other popular Irish cultural events attended by adults were ‘a féile’, ‘an Irish language or music Feis’ and ‘Fleadh Cheoil’ (all 5%).
Barriers to attending more Irish cultural events
When asked for reasons that prevented them from attending more Irish cultural events, a quarter of adults (25%) cited ‘I’m not really interested’. Other reasons included ‘it’s difficult to find the time’ (11%), ‘my health isn’t good enough’ (7%) and ‘events are not publicised enough’ (4%). Just over half of adults (52%), when asked what prevents them from attending more Irish events, stated that ‘nothing prevents them’.
Understanding of Irish culture and traditions
Just over seven in every ten adults (71%) had at least a little understanding of Irish culture and traditions in the previous year, with three in ten adults (30%) stating that they understood a lot about Irish culture and traditions. In contrast, around one in every seven adults (16%) had hardly any understanding of Irish culture and traditions, while 13% of adults stated that they understood nothing at all about Irish culture and traditions.
When analysed by religion, a higher proportion of adults from the Catholic community (87%) than those from both the Protestant community (57%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (67%) understood Irish culture and traditions at least a little.
Respect for Irish culture and traditions
In 2023/24, more than four-fifths of adults (84%) had at least a little respect for Irish culture and traditions, with over half of adults (52%) having a lot of respect for Irish culture and traditions. In contrast, just under one in every ten adults said they either had hardly any respect or no respect at all for Irish culture and traditions (both 8%). Women were more likely than men to have at least a little respect for Irish culture and traditions (86% and 83% respectively).
When analysed by religion, a higher proportion of adults from the Catholic community (93%) than those from both the Protestant community (78%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (82%) had at least a little respect for Irish culture and traditions.
Definitions & technical notes
Continuous Household Survey
The Continuous Household Survey is a Northern Ireland wide household survey administered by Central Survey Unit, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. The sample for this survey consists of a systematic random sample of 8,940 addresses selected from the Land and Property Service’s list of private addresses. The findings reported for 2023/24 are based on 4,927 respondents, aged 16 and over.
Note: Data collection for the 2023/24 CHS was carried out using a mix of telephone and face-to-face interviewing modes, a similar approach to that used in 2022/23. For 2020/21 and 2021/22 data collection was by telephone interviewing due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There was also a reduction in the number of questions between 2020/21-2022/23. As a result, the figures from 2020/21 onwards are not directly comparable to previous years due to the significant changes to the survey in terms of methodology and content. More information is available on the NISRA website.
Weighting the Continuous Household Survey
Analysis of the Irish/Ulster-Scots module of the CHS has been weighted for non-response. A chi square goodness-of-fit test showed that the CHS sample (4,927) was not representative of the population by age and sex when compared with the 2022 Mid Year Estimates for Northern Ireland (NISRA 31 August 2023). As a result, separate weights were produced for age, sex and age and sex combined.
Non-response weighting sometimes increases standard errors, although the impact tends to be fairly small, i.e. the adjustment may be less or greater than 1, but will generally be reasonably close to 1. In the case of the culture, arts and sport modules of the CHS, the values of the adjustment for all three weighting systems are so close to one, it is not necessary to take account of this in the calculation of standard error and confidence intervals.
While weighting for non-response (also called post-stratification) should reduce bias, it must be acknowledged that it will not eliminate bias. The reasons individuals choose to take part in surveys are complex and depend on lots of factors specific to the individual. As a result, the non-response biases in surveys are likely to be complex. Post-stratification works on the assumption that, by aligning the survey to the population along a small number of dimensions such as age and gender, many of these complex biases will reduce. However, it would be misleading to suggest that they will be eliminated.
Statistical significance in this report
Any statements in this report regarding differences between groups are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. This means that we can be 95% confident that the differences between groups are actual differences and have not just arisen by chance. The base numbers, sizes of percentages (relating to low self-efficacy and loneliness) or variance of scores (relating to wellbeing) have an effect on statistical significance. Therefore on occasion, a difference between two groups may be statistically significant while the same difference in percentage points or mean score between two other groups may not be statistically significant. The reason for this is because the larger the base numbers or the closer the percentages are to 0 or 100 or the smaller the variance in scores, the smaller the standard errors. This leads to increased precision of the estimates which increases the likelihood that the difference between the proportions or mean scores is actually significant and has not just arisen by chance.
Official Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. Contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards - email:analyticsdivision@communities-ni.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Other notes
The following should be noted when interpreting figures and tables: