History of the Irish Troubles: The Peace Walls After 50 Years
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61841/y79j8a28Abstract
Throughout the last four centuries, the Irish and English conflict has been fierce and unrelenting, with neither side willing to concede their positions on fundamental issues spanning religious practices, land ownership, and political control. In an attempt to quell the guerilla warfare period known as the "the Troubles" that occurred from the 1960s to the 1990s, many believed erecting walls- called Peace Walls - would provide critical levels of military and civilian safety. However, these walls further divided an already fractured country, pitting neighbors and sometimes families against one another. An examination of historical reports, interviews, and governmental studies has led to the dismaying conclusion that "the Troubles" are still deeply entrenched in the streets and bricks of Ireland, just as they are in the hearts of its citizens. To solve this centuries-old conflict, Northern Ireland must make a difficult decision to remove these walls, both figuratively and literally, if it ever hopes to have a chance for lasting reconciliation.
References
Alpha History, ‘Quotations: Background to Northern Ireland’, Alpha History [website],
https://alphahistory.com/northernireland/quotations-background-northern-ireland/.
Arkins, T., ‘The Penal Laws and Irish Land’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, vol. 1, no. 3, 1912, pp. 514-523, https://www.jstor.org/stable/30083979, (accessed 1 November 2021).
Arthur, P., ‘Extracts from 'The People's Democracy 1968-73', CAIN [website] https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/pdmarch/arthur74a.htm, (accessed 1 November 2022).
Bardon, J., A History of Ulster, Newtownards, Blackstaff Press, 1992.
Belfast Interface Project, ‘Belfast Interfaces: Security Barriers and Defensive Use of Space’, CAIN [website], January 2012, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/segregat/docs/jarman110112.pdf, (accessed November 5, 2022).
Belfast Interface Project, ‘Interface Barriers, Peacelines and Defensive Architecture’, CAIN [website], 2017, https://www.belfastinterfaceproject.org/sites/default/files/publications/Interfaces%20PDF
.pdf, (accessed November 2022).
Buckland, P., The Factory of Grievances: Devolved Government in Northern Ireland, 1921-
, Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1979.
Cameron, The Hon. Lord, ‘Disturbances in Northern Ireland’, CAIN [website], Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 9 September 1969, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/proni/1969/proni_HA-32-3-2_1969-09-09.pdf.
Cochrane, F., Northern Ireland: The Reluctant Peace, New Haven, NJ, Yale University Press, 2013.
‘Conclusions of a Meeting of the Joint Security Committee Held on Tuesday, 9th September 1969, at Stormont Castle’, CAIN [website], 9 September 1969, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/proni/1969/proni_HA-32-3-2_1969-09-09.pdf.
Connolly, S., The Oxford Companion to Irish History, Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 2002.
‘Brexit: EU Warns No Negotiation Possible as UK Delays Border Checks Again’, Massive, 6 September 2021, https://massive.news/2021/09/06/brexit-eu-warns-no- renegotiation-possible-as-uk-delays-border-checks-again/.
Cosstick, V., Belfast: Toward a City Without Walls, Newtownards, Colourprint Books, 2015.
Cunningham, N., and Gregory, I., ‘Hard to Miss, Easy to Blame? Peacelines, Interfaces and Political Deaths in Belfast During the Troubles’, Political Geography, 64-78, 2014.
Darby, J., ‘Conflict in Northern Ireland: A Background Essay’, in S. Dunn (ed.), Facets of the Conflict in Northern Ireland, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/, 1995, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/facets.htm.
Di Cintio, M., Walls: Travels Along the Barricades, Berkeley, Soft Skull Press, 2013.
Dixon, J., et al., ‘When the Walls Come Tumbling Down: The Role of Intergroup Proximity, Threat and Contact in Shaping Attitudes Towards the Removal of Northern Ireland's Peace Walls’, British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 59, no. 4, 2020, pp. 922-944.
Doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12370.
Charles River Editors, The Partition of Ireland and the Troubles: The History of Northern Ireland from the Irish Civil War to the Good Friday Agreement, Independently published, 2018.
Edgington, T. and Kovacevic, T., ‘Brexit: What are the Northern Ireland Protocol and Windsor Framework?’, BBC News, 12 April 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-5372438.
Edwards, R., ‘Northern Irish Loyalists Warn of "Angry" Backlash to Brexit Deal’, Bloomberg, 22 October 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-22/northern-irish-loyalists-warn-of- angry-backlash-to-brexit-deal.
Elliott, S., The Electoral System in Northern Ireland since 1920, Ph.D. diss., Belfast, Queen's University, 1971.
English, R., Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, Oxford University Press, 2004.
English, R., Irish Freedom: A History of Irish Nationalism, London, Macmillan, 2006.
Fitzpatrick, D. (eds.), Terror in Ireland, 1916-1923, Dublin, Lilliput Press, 2012[P1].
Gallagher, E., ‘Report by Eamonn Gallagher, Department of External Affairs, on Meetings with Individuals in Northern Ireland, particularly Derry’, CAIN [website], 1969, National Archives, Ireland, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/proni/1969/proni_HA-32-3-2_1969-09-09.pdf.
Gallagher, T., and O'Connell, J. (eds.), Contemporary Irish Studies, Manchester University Press, 1983.
Gallagher T., and O'Connell, J. (eds.), Contemporary Irish Studies, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk, 1983, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/discrimination/whyte.htm.
Grattan, S., ‘Northern Ireland Still Divided by Peace Walls 20 Years After Conflict’, The World, 14 January 2020, https://theworld.org/stories/2020-01-14/northern-ireland-still-divided-peace-walls-20-years-after-conflict.
Grimaldi, F., Blood in the Streets, Guildhall Press, Derry, 1998, cited in ‘Extracts from ‘Blood in the Street’ by Fulvio Grimaldi’, CAIN [website], https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/bsunday/grimaldi.htm.
Johnston, E.M., ‘Problems Common to Both Protestant and Catholic Churches in Eighteenth Century Ireland’ in O. MacDonagh (ed.), Irish Culture and Nationalism 1750-1950, London and Canberra, Palgrave Macmillan, 1983.
Kee, R., The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, London, Penguin, 1972.
Langfitt, F., ‘Tourists Can now Experience Northern Ireland’s Political History’, NPR, 17 November 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/11/17/564752434/tourists-can-now-experience-northern-irelands-violent-political-history.
Leach, A., Duncan, P., Carroll, R., and Levett, C., ‘Stormont: Where Northern Irish Politics Splits and Where it Holds Together’, The Guardian, 22 June 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2021/jun/22/stormont-where- northern-irish-politics-splits-and-where-it-holds-together.
Lenihan, P., Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1727, Oxfordshire, Routledge, 2007.
McAleer, M. et al. (comps.), ‘Module 1: The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement’, Teaching Divided Histories, Nerve Centre, accessed on 1Library [website], https://1library.net/document/y6ov4r4y-module-northern-ireland-rights-movement- educational-resource-transition.html.
McGibbon, A., ‘Northern Ireland's Schools Still Aren't Integrated’, The Nation,
September 2019, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/northern-ireland-integration-
schools-lagan/.
McGrath, C., ‘Securing the Protestant Interest: The Origins and Purpose of the Penal Laws of 1695’, Irish Historical Studies, vol. 30, no. 117, 1996, pp. 25-
, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30008727.
McKenna, F. [comp.], ‘Do You See What I See? Young People's Experience of the Troubles in their Own Words and Photographs’ [Interviews and photographs], CAIN [website], Derry, INCORE, 1998, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/violence/cts/dyer.htm.
McKittrick, D., and McVea, D., Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of The Northern Ireland Conflict, Viking, London, 2002.
Melaugh, M. (comp.), ‘The People's Democracy March: Summary of Main Events’,
CAIN [website], 1976, https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/pdmarch/sum.htm.
National Army Museum, ‘Ireland, The Troubles’, National Army Museum,
‘Northern Ireland: Still Troubled’, The Economist, 15 April 2006, https://www.economist.com/britain/2006/04/12/still-troubled.
‘Orange Order Parades Take Place Amid Violence in Northern Ireland’, The Guardian, 12 July 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/uk- news/2018/jul/12/northern-ireland-orange-order-parades-12-july-amid-violence-belfast- derry.
Osborne, R., ‘The Northern Ireland Parliamentary Electoral System: the 1929 Reapportionment’, Irish Geography, 54-55, 1979.
P. Schaffer, M., ‘Laws in Ireland for the Suppression of Popery commonly known as the Penal Laws,’ University of Minnesota Law School, http://moses.law.umn.edu/irishlaws/index.html, (accessed December 2022).
‘Remarks by President Obama and Mrs. Obama in Town Hall with Youth of Northern Ireland’, 17 June 2013, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press- office/2013/06/17/remarks-president-obama-and-mrs-obama-town-hall-youth-northern- ireland.
Saville of Newdigate, The Rt. Hon. The Lord, Hoyt, The Hon. W., and Toohey, The Hon. J., Report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, 2010, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_ data/file/279149/0029_vii.pdf.
Stokes, G.T., Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church: A History of Ireland and Irish Christianity from the Anglo-Norman Conquest to the Dawn of the Reformation, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1892.
Sutton, M., ‘An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland’, CAIN [website],
https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/index.html.
Tewksbury, D, ‘N. Ireland and the U.S.: A Shared Civil Rights Struggle’, NPR,
March 2008, https://www.npr.org/sections/newsandviews/2008/03/n_ireland_and_the_us_shared_ci.ht ml.
Whelan, C., ‘Attitudes to Peace Walls’, Shared Future News, 31 January 2013. https://sharedfuture.news/attitudes-to-peace-walls/.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Carter Considine
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
