‘Human peace wall’ marks Good Friday Agreement’s 25th anniversary

A “human peace wall” event at a Belfast interface marked the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. About 100 people lined up from the Falls Road to the Shankill Road end on Northumberland Street, forming a line of solidarity across the community. They stood still for 25 seconds, to mark the years since the peace accord was agreed upon. The event was organised by New Life City Church and the Falls Residents’ Association. After some singing and prayers by …

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Listening to the psychogeography of Belfast

One of the final events of the Four Corners Festival was a discussion on what was described as the psychogeography of the city of Belfast. A panel of four — with one connected via a video call — ruminated on their walking through the streets, along borders and through them, sharing their perspectives to an audience of about two dozen gathered at the freshly opened Girdwood Community Hub. The question to answer was what can we learn about a city …

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Why does it flare up at Short Strand every time?

There was a heated exchange between, well, let’s just say Alex Maskey seemed to get heated up at the thought of what was, yet again, happening at Short Strand/Pitt Park interface last night. To the consternation of many he expressed the thought that if he lived in Short Strand he’d be throwing back some of the stones that came in too. There are many interfaces around the city, but few have as torrid a time as this one over the …

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OFMDFM’s Contested Space Programme

No, not that sort of space programme…  Maybe more like this sort of ‘space‘. ANYhoo…  Late on a Friday afternoon seems an odd time for the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers to be announcing a 3-year £4million scheme which targets just “six pilot areas”.  That works out at around £220,000 per ‘pilot area’, per year.  You can build a lot of fences for that sort of money… Although, they don’t appear to have defined those ‘pilot areas’. The timing is even odder …

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Photograph of the Day- Interface Hood

Moochin PhotomanPhotographer and visual artist based in Belfast. I have facilitated community based workshops with groups as diverse as visually impaired individuals in Dungannn, Travellers across Northern Ireland, Young Offenders and many community groups across Belfast. My work has exhibited extensively here in Northern Ireland in group and individual shows and has been shown in North America and i had my first solo international exhibition in New Zealand. I have been the recipient of a number of grants from the …

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Photograph of the day – ongoing conversations

A couple of weeks ago i attended a meeting at the Mount conference centre to discuss the ongoing issue of interface trouble around the Albertbridge Road /Woodstock link/Mount Pottinger Road. Organised by the Belfast Conflict Resolution Consortium (BCRC) all the statutory bodies were represented as you’d expect, though quite why the PSNI felt it necessary to have 6 officers sitting in on the 2 hour meeting, with another two in a Landrover in the carpark,  i’m a little uncertain. Provision …

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