The aim of this day is to bring together as many as possible of the stakeholders around the peacewalls and barriers in Belfast to discuss "what has changed over the last decade and is changing now?" An agenda will be sent out prior to the day - its content will depend on who signs up for the day. There will be an exhibition of 20 new interface images by Frankie Quinn.
I do not have any external funding for the meeting and therefore am chargong £10.00 per head except for donors to my own crowdfunding campaign. I hope to be able to offer a sandwich lunch but may ask attendees to bring a packed lunch ....
June 2025 will mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of “Belfast: Toward a City Without Walls” (Colourpoint 2015), an exploration of the 100 “peacewalls” and interfaces which divide Protestant from Catholic communities in Belfast and are a continuing legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles. The book explored the “conundrum” of the walls, and contained a set of black & white images of the peacewalls by internationally renowned Belfast photographer Frankie Quinn.
I have recently accepted a commission to contribute a chapter to an ambitious book on Belfast, which has been in preparation for some years by editors Ciaran Mackel, a well-known Belfast architect, and academic Alona Martinez.
My research for this article will include a set of 20 new images from Frankie Quinn to be exhibited at a day conference in the Memorial Hall on Townsend Street, which is where I have led previous meetings to discuss the peacewalls, and which is part of the former Presbyterian Church complex on Townsend Street, now the home of Ulster Orchestra.
Belfast: Toward a City Without Walls was written in response to a promise made in 2013 by the Northern Ireland executive at the time (Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness) that all the walls would be removed within 10 years, by 2023. That promise has not been fulfilled and Northern Ireland remains a post-conflict society with many unresolved issues. The conference and book chapter will explore “what has changed, what has been the constructive change, what is changing now, what still needs to change and how might that happen? - around the peacewalls and interfaces in Belfast in 2025?”
