Background to the Research

• Between 1969 and 1973 in Belfast, an estimated 60,000 people left their homes due to ethnic conflict and 15 peace lines were constructed in order to help manage the conflict in areas of Belfast where the two communities interfaced. Life in the interfaces is poorly understood by policy makers and little has been forthcoming from them on how the peace lines are to be managed. This chapter seeks to explore the functions of the peace lines and elicits the responses of the community to the issue.
  

Research Approach

• The analysis is based on households surveyed in three areas in Belfast (450 households per area); Suffolk in West Belfast - an area of predominately Catholic housing with a small Protestant community; Short Strand - a predominantly Protestant area with a small Catholic population and Ardoyne where there is a numerical balance between Protestants and Catholics.
  

Main Findings

• If the three areas are typical of peace line zones, then 69% of the community earn less than £5,000 compared with 45% of NI as a whole. The unemployment rate at interface areas is 31%- three times the rate for NI as a whole (11%).
• Forty-one per cent of households in total receive Income Support, compared with 21% for NI as a whole. Twelve per cent of the total population in NI gained Advanced level standard as their highest qualification and the same figure a university degree, in the peace line communities the rates were 2% and 1% respectively.
• Protestant demographics are characterised by lower fertility rates, family size and an elderly profile, whilst Catholic demographics are characterised by larger than average families, a younger age profile and higher than average fertility rates. This has implications for housing provision. For example, 27% of the households in Protestant Suffolk were equal to the 'bedroom standard' of dwelling occupancy compared with 46% on the Catholic side. In Ardoyne and the Short Strand, 43% and 44% of Protestant households are classified as elderly compared with 26% of Catholic households in the two areas.
• Low head of household income is a feature of all areas, whether Protestant or Catholic. The same applies to employment data, in the Short Strand 17% of household heads on the Protestant side of the peace line are in full-time employment compared with 16% on the Catholic side.
• Twenty-eight per cent of Catholics in the Short Strand reported that accessing monthly shopping was a problem and 11% of residents in Protestant Suffolk had a problem getting to a leisure centre. Overall, 25% of peace line residents had a problem with vandalism, 24% with stone throwing and 13% with local rioting.
• Most Protestants described themselves as 'British'; Suffolk 60%, Ardoyne 58% and Short Strand 39%, and Catholics were most likely to call themselves 'Irish'.
• Eighty-one per cent of the sample would allow someone from the opposite religion to join their clubs and societies and 90% would permit entry into their neighbourhood. In all areas there was a lower rate of acceptance amongst Protestants; for example, in Suffolk 90% of Catholics would allow a member of the Protestant community to marry into their family compared with 60% of Protestants allowing a Catholic to marry into their family and 79% of Ardoyne Protestants would accept a Catholic neighbour compared with 97% of Catholics accepting a Protestant neighbour.

Conclusions

• The development of a pluralist housing and planning agenda in Belfast needs to take account of the realities that have shaped the social and physical fabric of the city.
• Planning that takes account of segregation can only be accused of being apartheid where it is used as an instrument of community control, discrimination in the allocation of resources, or as an enforced strategy. This can be avoided if planning is based on an explicit commitment to an equal allocation of resources and ensures access for communities to services and facilities in order that people may express their desire for a certain lifestyle.