We took a tour of the Shankill Road and the surrounding area. The evidence of the remaining divide is clear: a peacewall divides the Catholic and Protestant communities in half. The wall is one third of a mile long and taller than the Berlin wall. What started as a cement wall wasn’t tall enough to keep the grenades out, so a metal section was built above that. Further up, a fence increases the height even more. Its purpose was to literally protect the two communities from conflict, but now that the Troubles are officially over it remains as a sign of the continued division between the two groups.
In other parts of the city, walls or fences divide communities but allow sections to be opened during daylight hours. Although the official conflict is over, the remnants of it remain obvious through physical boundaries to seperate people across religious and political beliefs.
Kira Weidner