Peace Wall, Belfast

I was very grateful to Professor Cathy Gormley-Heenan , Pro Vice Chancellor of Ulster University, hugely informed and knowledgable politics academic and encyclopaedic source regarding her native city of Belfast , it’s recent history, it’s organisation and the relationship between its communities for offering to take me on a tour of the city’s “peace walls” this morning before I flew back to Scotland.

There are over a hundred of these physical barriers between communities. This particular one , in Cupar Way , has been in existence for almost 50 years and is three times the height of the Berlin Wall. It is much visited but neither side wants it removed, for now at least.

I can’t say I was heartened by what I heard and saw but it is clear that the issue requires a resolution which would be part of returning Northern Ireland to not just normality (whatever that is) but also to a stable and sustainable future.

Work by people like Cathy is integral to that task and her willingness to share and discuss the issues is hugely important.

Moran Taing,