Sir, – Counting the number of peace walls in Northern Ireland is an interesting exercise but it does not offer any insight into how things have changed or are changing since the Together Building a United Community (TBUC) commitment to remove all peace walls by 2023 ("One in five of North's peace walls not in Stormont plan", May 22nd). That target may appear in retrospect to be naive but like many of the "best-laid plans of mice and men", it did not take into account the complexity of the task.
There have been many positive developments in the interface areas: for example, the restoration of the Crumlin Road Gaol as a highly successful tourist attraction, the removal of walls around the old Girdwood barracks site and the building of the new Girdwood community hub. Now the crumbling Crumlin Road Courthouse has been sold for restoration as a hotel. Gates have been removed on Springmartin Road and Newington Street. A new Innovation Factory has opened its doors on the Springfield Road. The Twaddell loyalist camp has been dismantled.
The 2023 target focused the mind of funders and community groups on the need to build cross-community relationships in Belfast and work with young people. There is anecdotal evidence of a significant reduction in anti-social behaviour around the interfaces in the last couple of years, and people’s fears about violence have more to do with their – understandable – traumatic memories of the past than the real likelihood of future disturbance. Residents are given a key role in decisions to reduce or remove the walls, but for progress to happen there also needs to be co-operation among all government departments, adequate funding, and shared resolve among all those who are intensely concerned about the continued blight and scandal of the peace walls – bureaucrats, community groups and agencies, police, politicians, architects, business people and church ministers.
In the 2015 Fresh Start agreement, Westminster pledged £60 million to support cross-community initiatives to reduce the peace walls – but the process needs to be led by all the Stormont parties, and to feature in the next programme for government and the priorities of the new Executive. The peace walls are the appalling physical legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland and need to remain front and foreground in the unfinished business of the peace process. – Yours, etc,
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VICKY COSSTICK,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.