The Complex Process of Demolishing Belfast's 'Peace Walls'

Last week, Belfast tore down its first peace wall. These brick and wire boundaries were strung across roads, parks and even backyards during the period of the Northern Irish Troubles, in a bid to create manageable barriers between the province’s warring communities. With the walls in place, both sides of Northern Ireland’s sectarian divide found respite from daily tension and violence on their doorstep. Now, 18 years after the Good Friday Agreement that brokered a peace deal for the region, it’s time for these relics of former strife to come down. By 2023, all of Northern Ireland’s 48 peace walls (most of them in Belfast) will be demolished, ushering in a new era in which the province’s communities can live in both proximity and harmony.

That’s the aspiration at least, and a noble one at that. But while it’s true that inter-communal violence has dropped greatly and attitudes shifted in recent decades, the reality that Belfast’s peace walls have both shaped and reflected is complex. The walls don’t just prevent street violence. The practical and psychological barriers they have put up have fostered a sense of stability that, while ultimately untenable, will require delicate renegotiation.