1. The « Peace Lines » in Northern Ireland
Photo : Wess. http://www.flickr.com/photos/prh/847008679/sizes/o/in/photostream/ (4/12/2013)
An 5.5 m-high Peace Line along Springmartin Road in
Belfast, that still separates Catholic and Protestant districts 15
year after the end of the Troubles.
5 décembre 2013
Auteur : Manon Guilbaud
Page 1
2. From Berlin to Belfast... An illusory state of peace.
Photo : Diego's Sideburn http://www.flickr.com/photos/diego_sideburns/9064901353/sizes/o/in/photostream/
5 décembre 2013
Auteur : Manon Guilbaud
Page 2
3. The concrete reflection of mental barriers
Photo : http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcamsterdam/7385721862/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Loyalist side of a peace wall in Belfast.
5 décembre 2013
Auteur : Manon Guilbaud
Page 3
4. Walls in the middle of the city... A segregated society.
Photo : Robin Kirk.
5 décembre 2013
Auteur : Manon Guilbaud
Page 4
5. A call for peace ?
Photo :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a11sus/460766609/sizes/o/in/photolist-GHxRT-GHy8J-GHyi2-GHyrD-GHysu-GHz4K-GHz83-
5 décembre 2013
Auteur : Manon Guilbaud
Page 5
6. A call for peace ?
Photo :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a11sus/460766609/sizes/o/in/photolist-GHxRT-GHy8J-GHyi2-GHyrD-GHysu-GHz4K-GHz83-
5 décembre 2013
Auteur : Manon Guilbaud
Page 5
Notes de l'éditeur
In Northern Ireland, walls still separate some nationalist Catholics and unionist Protestants, whereas they’re supposed to live in peace for 15 years.
The Good Friday Agreement of the 10th of April 1998 put officially an end to the civil war.
Other peace agreements followed, and appeared as a hope for a peaceful coexistence : historical agreement for a coalition government in 2007.
But this official peace is illusory, and great tensions remain nowadays between the two communities. Many Northern-Irish consider that the war has never really ended.
The peace-lines (or peace walls) represent concretely the mental barriers that had not fall with the establishment of the political, official peace.
The walls were supposed to be temporary, but they still remain today, 15 years after the end of the Troubles. They have even been reinforced, and some new walls have been constructed since the Good Friday Agreement. In Belfast, there were 18 fences in 1998, and there are 40 today. There is a total of 40km of walls in Northern Ireland.
The persistence of these peace-lines shows a society still fragmented, with separated school systems and social systems, where both sides ignore each other most of the time. This segregation is especially important in the working-class districts where the population was affected by the crisis of deindustrialisation.
Northern Ireland's government has recently put forward a proposal for removing the walls within the next 10 years, but the populations from both communities are opposed to it. They consider that there is too much bitterness between them, and that the walls prevent them from being hurt in a new civil war. Many people also declare that they refuse to share their district with Catholics or Protestants.
There were, recently, new riots in Belfast, on December 2012 and January 2013, after Belfast City Council voted to limit the days that the Union Flag flies from Belfast City Hall.
So we can see that there are still great tensions between Catholics and Protestants, and we can imagine that the walls will still be needed for a long time.
