QUB-ICBAN Community Survey
On ‘Brexit and the Central Border Region: Views from rural communities’
This is now live at https://tinyurl.com/QUBICBAN and will run until 30th June
The focus of the initiative is to gather details of the potential day to day impacts of Brexit on people’s lives from across the border area. The findings will help complement other surveys and research that have and are being completed on business and economic impacts etc. As stated on the flyer, this is a non-political and non-partisan initiative, intended to provide an opportunity for the wider community to engage in the Brexit debate.
The intention is that the final report will be completed by early autumn for presentation to the governments of the UK, Ireland, NI authorities, the EU etc. and for sharing with elected representatives and interested stakeholder groups.
Brexit and the Central Border Region: views from rural communities
Amid the uncertainty about the future of the UK’s relationship with the European Union, one thing is clear: the Irish border region will be most directly affected by Brexit. This is in part because the Irish border region reflects the close interlinking of relations across these islands – not just north and south on the island of Ireland, but east and west between Britain and Ireland.
With this in mind, ICBAN together with a small team from Queen’s University Belfast are conducting a research project on ‘Brexit and the Central Border Region’, with a particular emphasis on the experience of rural communities in Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon; Cavan; Donegal; Fermanagh and Omagh; Leitrim; Mid Ulster; Monaghan; and Sligo. The project is non-political and non-partisan; we want to gather the views of local people whose voices otherwise tend not to be heard, therefore all the data from the survey and focus groups will be anonymous; it will not be possible to make connections between individuals and particular viewpoints.
The results of this project will be compiled in a project report that will be shared with all the local councils and with the Northern Ireland Executive, Irish government, UK Government, European Union and MLAs, TDs, Senators, MPs and MEPs from this area. We will summarise the results in another blog and in a summary on the ICBAN website www.icban.com that can be used by local communities and representatives. We aim to bring forward points from the everyday experience of people in the Central Border Region that are otherwise at risk of getting lost.
The survey is a short one and we kindly ask you to complete all questions, but a very brief answer or ‘don’t know’ in some of them is fine.