I first visited Ireland from New York in Autumn of 1977, spending three months traveling around the country and usually staying with the families of friends, who became themselves lifelong friends.  Arriving in Belfast in the midst of the Troubles, I presented myself at the British Army barracks in Lisburn and asked to accompany an army patrol.  My request was granted, almost no questions asked -- “It’s raining, you’ll get wet, are you sure you want to go?” – and the resulting article and photographs were published in the New York Daily News in March 1978.  I continued to visit Ireland and ten years later, March 1988, I was invited by Fr Tom Toner, the parish priest of St Agnes RC Church on the Andersonstown Road, in West Belfast, to profile his parish – where two off duty British soldiers had been dragged from their car and murdered in the wake of events following the killing of three IRA operatives in Gibraltar.  That article was published in The Tablet.  In March 2013, I went back to West Belfast to find out what had changed, 25 years after Gibraltar and 15 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.  During the research for that Tablet article,  I learned about the extent of the peacewalls and interfaces that still divided Protestant from Catholic neighbourhoods

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With Frankie Quinn at the launch of Belfast cordon sanitaire

 

Belfast's Peacewalls and Interfaces:  Continuing the Conversation

June 2025 will mark the 10th anniversary of the publication in 2015 of my book Belfast:  Toward a City Without Walls by Colourpoint,  I am delighted to have been commissioned to contribute a chapter in 2025 to a new book on Belfast -- full details of this project can be found on this the page Belfast 2025.

 

n 2023 I contributed an introduction to a collection of Frankie Quinn’s photographs since 1994 of the peacewalls:  Belfast cordon sanitaire (published by Georg). I also wrote the introduction to Cordon Sanitaire by Frankie Quinn, a selection of his new colour images of the peacewalls, published in  2019 by Belfast Exposed.

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Previous writing on Northern Ireland: 

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From 2018 I contributed articles to Northern Slant, a Northern Ireland commentary platform, now sadly defunct.  These articles are now republished here on my website.  My three most recent articles explored the development of British policy on the unresolved legacy of the Troubles during the last years of the Tory government, from early 2020 when Secretary of State Julian Smith was sacked and Brandon Lewis took over.  In November 2020 I examined the implications of the government decision not to set up an inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.  In May 2021 I wrote about the likely way forward for legacy cases following the long-awaited publication of the Ballymurphy inquest report. And in July 2021 I reported on the Tory government proposals for legislation to end all Troubles-related criminal and civil cases, and legacy investigations.

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 Earlier articles for Northern Slant included pieces on artist Rita Duffy, the Ballymurphy campaign, an interview with Jon Snow of Channel 4 News on his experience of reporting on Northern Ireland, coverage of (then) Prince Charles’ contribution to the peace process, and "Looking Back, Looking Forward" a review of four contemporary art exhibitions in Donegal and Derry here.

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 In 2019 my series of essays, Don’t Mention the War:  Exploring Aspects of the Legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles, was published on Amazon in association with Northern Slant.  It features artwork by Rita Duffy, and has chapters on the frozen peace process, gender issues, trauma, the Good Friday Agreement and the role of the media in post-conflict Northern Ireland.  It can be purchased here. 

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Articles in The Irish Times include a review of Rita Duffy’s 2016 exhibition in Dublin, Souvenir, and on the peacewalls in 2017 here. 

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My peacewalls book emerged from articles written for The Tablet in 2013, “City of Cautious Hope”, and 1988, “The Gospel and the Gun".  My first article on the Troubles was published in the New York Daily News in March 1978, “The War Goes On”.