The peace walls - 19th April 2023

Two groups in Northern Ireland started fighting in 1968. The British army built walls to stop the fighting. The walls' name is the 'peace walls'.

In 1998, both groups signed a paper. They agreed to stop fighting. This is the Good Friday Agreement. The fighting stopped. But the walls are still there.

Michael Culbert fought in the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Now, he's a tour guide at the peace walls. He doesn't want the walls in the city.

Michael Culbert: "The walls here are a, are a remnant of our, our past conflict, when you think of wall. The walls were built, one, by the British government. And to a degree they were built to stop bullets. That's what the wall - the bullets can't go through the wall. There are no bullets flying now, so the walls have to come down."

The peace walls are different from the Berlin Wall. They're part of buildings and communities. Professor Jonny Byrne says the peace walls can't come down.

Jonny Byrne: "That's never happened and never will happen because we don't have a Berlin wall structure here. The peace walls, they actually have become part of the built environment and communities. You, you can drive through areas and not even know they're there because they've become part of the, the, the, the buildings and the, and the, and the architecture of these communities."

Lots of tourists visit the peace walls. But sometimes, people use the walls for protests. They show their anger towards the government.

In Belfast, people live and work together in peace. Culbert thinks the peace walls will come down in the future.

Michael Culbert: "The problem is the walls have been here that long. They're, they're covering at least two, possibly three generations. It'll take time but people will come, come to it."