Background to the Research

• The Belfast Interface Project is a membership organisation that aims to engage in the development of creative approaches towards the regeneration of Belfast Interface areas. This booklet aims to outline some of the processes over the period 1995-1998 through which community workers in the Inner East and Outer West Belfast Interface areas sought to address key issues relating to local conflict and division.
  

Research Approach

• Information was gathered through interviews with representatives of the Suffolk Community Forum, Lenadoon Community Forum, and the Inner East Interface Group.
  

Main Findings

The Inner East Interface

• Short Strand is a largely Catholic/nationalist enclave community (around 4,000 residents) on the inner-edge of predominantly Protestant/unionist East Belfast.

The Outer West Interface

• Suffolk estate is a small mainly Protestant/unionist enclave community (around 830 residents) on the outer edge of predominantly Catholic/nationalist West Belfast.
• Several key issues were common to each interface: the need to reduce interface violence; young people are largely responsible for the violence and their needs need to be addressed; more trust and understanding between interface communities is required and local areas need economic and environmental improvements.
• Co-operation between activists from both communities reduced violence over the summers of 1997-1998 in Inner East Belfast. Equally, co-operation in managing a local joint economic regeneration project in Outer West Belfast will benefit both Suffolk and Lenadoon.
• Both communities live with the potential and real fear of sectarian violence. Each perceives a 'veto' by the 'other' community in relation to the use of facilities, services, public transport etc. Both experience high levels of unemployment and other aspects of economic and social deprivation.
• The infrastructure of community development is at a lower level in both Protestant/unionist East Belfast and Suffolk estate than in Catholic/nationalist Short Strand or Lenadoon.
• To some degree in Protestant/unionist areas the wider political process is viewed as having conceded more to the Catholic/nationalists and in light of this intercommunity dialogue/activities is treated with caution.
• The Catholic/nationalist Short Strand and Lenadoon communities have a longer history of community development with well-embedded local community infrastructures. There is also a tradition of centralised and hierarchical command structures within the Catholic Church, education and paramilitary organisations.
• In Suffolk and the Protestant/unionist East Belfast interface communities there are significant numbers of empty dwellings and a higher proportion of elderly people. Conversely, in Lenadoon and Short Strand there are few empty dwellings, little green play space and a greater proportion of younger families. This situation raises fears in Protestant areas that Catholics want 'our houses.'
• Intercommunity dialogue and the degree of tension/conflict has been adversely affected by wider political events such as the collapse of the Irish Republican Army ceasefire in 1996, the activity of the Loyalist Volunteer Force and other paramilitary groupings over the winter of 1997/1998 and lack of accommodation and agreement with regard to contentious parades and protests throughout Northern Ireland.
• There is a lack of resources in terms of neutral meeting venues that community activists can use.
• The Belfats Interface Project has frequently taken on the role of a trusted third party in order to keep communication between groups ongoing.
• Fear of retribution from within a given community remains an obstacle to intercommunity dialogue, this appears to be particularly the case within the Protestant/unionist community.
• Intercommunity work is a slow and painstaking process, it is often interrupted by factors inside and outside the local communities. Intermittent violence often requires a cooling off period; however, its occurrence does not eradicate progress altogether. The data shows that local community activists played a vital role in reducing violence and stabilising intercommunity relations, especially during the summers of 1997-1998.