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Thursday, 18 June 2009

Peace walls: 40 years on

It is 40 years this year since the first peace walls went up in Belfast.

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In July 1969, soldiers moved in to erect the first official barriers.

Many more have gone up in the post ceasefire years, and at the last count the number of barriers in the city stood at 88.

This week on UTV Live we have a special series looking at the history of the walls and the issues, and local communities have their say on whether it is time to knock them down.

They went up as supposedly ramshackle temporary barriers as a quick fix designed to replace street barricades erected amidst bloody secarian clashes in Belfast in 1969.

But 40 years on the peace walls are still there, 40 feet high in places, and looking every inch permanent pieces of the fabric of a still divided society.

In Belfast, a survey has shown that a huge majority of people living on the interfaces want the walls to come down but they don't believe the time is right, just yet.

The survey found that 81 per cent of residents were in favour of the walls coming down, but 60 per cent said they didn't believe the time was right at the minute.

Only 21 per cent of them wanted them to come down now, and 17 per cent said they didn't care if the walls never came down.

In Belfast, one woman who opposed the demolition of a wall on her doorstep said that not only did she not know anyone who lived just yards from her across the fence, but she also said she had never seen what was on the other side.

Watch the special series on peace walls on UTV Live from June 15th - 17th.

Construction of a peace wall in Belfast

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11 Comments

At 21:09 on 18 June 2009, Margaret wrote:

I believe the walls should stay, i live facing one and believe me its not a nice view, but it makes you feel safe, what if like happend to that poor man kevin mcdaid it just takes something or someone to start something and what for to have another death no thank you the peace wall stays

At 20:39 on 18 June 2009, Ash wrote:

I am the little girl at the end of the clip, (yeah the one who looks like a boy.. lol) I will be so glad to see that wall taken down, time to move on.

At 20:19 on 17 June 2009, Gavin wrote:

I think the peace walls should come down. As far as I'm concerned, they are a blot on the landscape of Belfast. Although my home area of the city is not near a peace wall, I do understand that it won't take a day or two for the walls to come down. It should be up to both sides of the community, and if or when they feel the time is right for the walls to come down, then they should come down. I know such a decision won't be taken in the near future, but one of these days, the walls should come down.

At 00:55 on 17 June 2009, Paul wrote:

Most of the people who want these walls to come down don't even live near them. Where I live, on a peace line (not either side of it), the residents have never been approached about their opinions even though the media have been told that they have. A lot of these so called community workers are ex paramilitaries who were the cause of the walls going up in the first place.

At 21:48 on 16 June 2009, kattie wrote:

i think that the walls of peace should not come down because they are a great memory to me.

At 01:45 on 16 June 2009, Sharlene Mulholland wrote:

I think the walls should be taken down because if leaving it there it will remind people about the trouble past which people are trying to forget, also i think that people are ready for them to be took down for those who are still living in the past they should move on and forget about it, it may be hard to but its for our childrens future and their childrens future. "Bring them down"

At 00:21 on 16 June 2009, Kevin wrote:

The "peace walls" wiill never come down until NI people catch up with the rest of Europe, Berlin et al, mentally-speaking. That should happen about 400 years from now, when the province's current crop of bigots and their brainwashed offspring are nothing but embarrassing, sad little bylines in history books.