Security through separation: violence, fear and negotiation on the dividing line in Belfast

Abstract

This thesis delves deep into the archives to examine the emergence of a policy of ‘security through separation’ embodied by the present-day Belfast peace walls. Through an analysis of the micro-level dynamics of intercommunal conflict at the local level at the start of the Troubles, it becomes apparent that a combination of violence, fear and negotiation along lines of division in the city led to the construction of officially sanctioned barriers between communities. By examining the interaction of local and political level factors present during the autumn of 1969 in Northern Ireland, this thesis determines the set of crucial conditions that served to create an environment conducive for the development and subsequent swift implementation of an official policy of ‘security through separation’. While certainly symbolic of the entrenched division between communities in Northern Ireland, the peace walls have become part of the structure of the conflict. The first peace line to emerge on the streets of Belfast in 1969 was built on a legacy of division and formed part of a pattern of officially sanctioned barriers constructed by the authorities in response to situations of intercommunal violence. By drawing on, heretofore vastly underexplored, incidents of conflict along individual streets in Belfast this thesis seeks to highlight the extent to which the dynamics of intercommunal violence at the local level in Belfast yielded reverberations far beyond their limited geographic area. As walls continue to be proffered up as a solution to a myriad of issues worldwide, this detailed study of the emergence of the Belfast peace walls will perhaps offer pause to those who believe that building barriers is a viable solution in situations of insecurity.