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Northern Ireland’s social landlords are helping build peace, but we must not take it for granted

The increasing level of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland is a warning that we ignore at our peril, says Ben Collins

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Picture: Getty
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Northern Ireland’s social landlords are helping build peace, but it must not be taken for granted, says @bjacollins @NIFHA #ukhousing

“A lasting peace can only be achieved, now and for future generations, through a genuine commitment from everyone in our communities to work together,” says @bjacollins @NIFHA #ukhousing

“Northern Ireland’s social landlords are making a huge contribution to peace. We are delivering more shared social housing where people of different cultures and religious backgrounds can live together in peace,” says @bjacollins @NIFHA #ukhousing

Northern Ireland’s housing associations operate in many of our most deprived and divided communities.

More than 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement was signed, 90% of social housing is still segregated along religious and cultural divides.

From our work in these communities, we can attest that tensions here are rising alarmingly to heights not seen since the dark days of the Troubles.

We are currently at a crucial junction in the peace process and a long way from bringing some semblance of normality to many of our neighbourhoods.

Young people in some of our most disadvantaged and polarised communities are increasingly displaying more hard-line and militant attitudes and behaviours towards “the other side”.

They are also easy prey for those more sinister elements who seek to manipulate them for their own agendas.

Yet there are many, more affluent, neighbourhoods throughout Northern Ireland where Protestant and Catholic neighbours live peacefully side by side.

Here, there are no bonfires, no pitched battles between young people, or the police and contractors trying to take bonfire material away. In these areas, there are no contentious flags flying from lampposts and no paramilitary control over their area.


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People living in well-to-do communities are shocked by the images of protest and violence taking place in other areas.

Their response is often “why don’t they all just get on with it and get along with each other” or “ban all bonfires and flag flying”. Well, it is never going to be as easy as that.

The problems are deeply rooted. People are raised in a single-identity community, often separated from other communities by physical barriers.

They attend single identity churches and schools, take part in sports and activities associated with their tradition, and so on.

They don’t people meet from other backgrounds until after they finish secondary school. By then, prejudices are firmly embedded.

“A lasting peace can only be achieved, now and for future generations, through a genuine commitment from everyone in our communities to work together”

In addition, the failure to address the legacy issues is an open wound that has not healed. High-profile public inquiries have often not provided the answers or closure that allow families and communities to move forward.

This further creates a sense of injustice, anger and frustration within the wider communities.

As a society, we must recognise and acknowledge the terrible hurt that was inflicted by all sides against each other.

The past cannot be undone or forgotten, especially for the families of the victims and those that continue to suffer trauma as a result of the Troubles. We must all work together to ensure that it is not repeated.

A lasting peace can only be achieved, now and for future generations, through a genuine commitment from everyone in our communities to work together.

We all have difficult choices to make in agreeing on what our future society will look like. Compromise, understanding and empathy should not be interpreted as showing weakness, surrendering your values, or diluting your identity.

Northern Ireland will require a significant sea change in the political landscape to make this happen.

Bitter public bickering between politicians only fuels intolerance, divisiveness and a sense of hopelessness that nothing will ever change. It needs to stop.

Our political leaders must get our political institutions back up and running. They need to send out the message that democracy works.

For our part, social housing providers in Northern Ireland are already making a huge contribution to peacebuilding. We are delivering more shared social housing developments where people of different cultures and religious backgrounds can live together in peace.

In addition, we are bringing existing communities together, through collaboration such as the Housing Associations Integration Project.

“Social housing providers in Northern Ireland are already making a huge contribution to peacebuilding. We are delivering more shared social housing developments where people of different cultures and religious backgrounds can live together in peace”

The €1.1m EU PEACE IV funded initiative involves more than 1,200 social housing residents in Northern Ireland and the border counties from a range of religious and cultural backgrounds.

They are coming together to share experiences, learn about differences and embrace diversity in the communities in which they live.

Vital projects like this must be sustained in the longer term to bring about the positive changes we need to build a new more peaceful country.

Social housing is one part of a complex jigsaw that involves many other sectors, and governments from both sides of the border, working collectively so all of us can live together in equality and mutual respect, at ease with each other and with hope for our future.

Ben Collins, chief executive, Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations

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