A mass uprising against the Irish government would be joined by more than half of young people in the country, a survey has indicated.
Fifty four per c ent of 18 - 34-year-olds said they would take part in a “large scale uprising against the generation in power if it happened in the next days or months”.
The survey polled nearly 20,000 people in Ireland as part of the European Broadcasting Union’s Generation What? research.
It showed that 36 per cent viewed politicians as corrupt, while 40 per cent said they were partly corrupt. Forty five per cent said they didn’t trust politics “at all”.
However, 25 per cent said very few politicians were corrupt, a figure lower than most of those in the same generation who were surveyed in 14 other countries.
The survey also found that the Church – traditionally a major institution in Ireland – appeared to have less influence over the country’s youth.
Only two per cent of those questioned said they completely trusted the Church and 56 per cent they didn’t trust it at all.
Eighty per cent of men and 78 per cent of women said they could be happy without religious belief and just 20 per cent said they couldn’t.
The police were not trusted by a large portion of people surveyed said did not fully trust the force.
However, the army scored highly on trust levels, with nearly 50 per cent of people trusting it to a large extent.
Researchers said this “salient” when taking into account, the large number of people who said they would join an anti-government uprising.
