Publications

Title Description
Reflected Lives: Intergenerational Oral Histories of Belfast’s Peace Wall Communities

'Reflected Lives' was a unique oral history project that captured the everyday experiences of people living either side of interface barriers or peace walls in Short Strand/ Inner East Belfast. Significantly, the project was not just cross-community but inter-generational. The project uncovered fascinating stories of those who lived in a shared community before the walls were erected, those who were segregated as the walls were built and those who have never experienced life without them. This publication presents the result of 23 interviews conducted during the project. Quotations are complemented by archival and contemporary images which help to bring the memories and everyday experiences of the interviewees to life.

BIP gratefully acknowledge the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund in funding this project.

Interface Barriers, Peacelines and Defensive Architecture

In 2012 Belfast Interface Project published a study carried out by the Institute for Conflict Research to identify and classify the known security barriers and associated forms of defensive architecture in residential areas of Belfast. This new publication seeks to update that research regionally and define what progress has been made during the intervening 5 year period to 2017 on ‘reimaging’, ‘reclassifying’ and / or ‘removing’ interface barriers and defensive architecture across Northern Ireland. This document draws significantly upon this latest research by The Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Justice and Security at Queen's University Belfast while also bringing together photographs and past information from previous BIP research projects on interface walls and barriers.

This examination attempts to provide an overview of security structures, together with a comprehensive listing, including new photographs and descriptions of defensive barriers and interface walls across the region. 

Belfast Interface Project Strategic Plan 2015-2020

The development of a new Belfast Interface Project strategic plan was an interactive process, involving the Board and Staff Team. This entailed a review of the policy context and the implications for BIP, a review of current/last plan highlighting areas of success and challenges, a series of individual interviews with Board and Staff members and two discussion workshops with the Board and staff. The intention and approach throughout was to ensure that BIP is working to an agreed course of action which will provide the direction of travel for the organisation in the future but is flexible enough to allow BIP to respond to changing needs and circumstances within communities and to opportunitites and challenges which will arise. 

Belfast Interfaces - Security Barriers and defensive use of space

In Spring of 2011 Belfast Interface Project (BIP) commissioned a piece of research carried out by the Institute for Conflict Research (ICR) to identify and classify the known security barriers and associated forms of defensive architecture in residential areas of Belfast. This document draws heavily upon the final research report produced by ICR and brings together photos and information from past BIP research projects including those undertaken by Frankie Quinn in 2005 and ICR in 2008.

The document is organised into two sections: Section 1 provides an overview of defensive architecture and associated blighted space in Belfast, and Section 2 provides a comprehensive listing with photographs and descriptions of security barriers and defensive use of space throughout the city, organised geographically by cluster. 

 

Polish Residents in Belfast

The main aim of this research was to look at the situation of minority Polish community in Belfast, in order to examine the main issues emerging in the process of integration of a relatively new community into local society in Belfast. The survey was conducted in Polish mainly online, and survey questionnaires were made available through various media outlets such as the Polish Association website, newsletter of numerous NGOs, mighrant portals and the Community Relations Council website. 

 

Membership Survey Report 2015

BIP commissioned Copius Consulting to undertake a survey of its members, board and staff in August 2015 focusing on interface issues and member's needs. This survey would assist BIP to inform and shape its future organisational direction and membership provision. In addition to conducting this survey the assignment brief included carrying out a comparative analysis of findings from this survey in relation to previous surveys conducted in 2004 and 2008. This report outlines the findings of this assignment. 

 

Enabling Our Future - YIP - Practice to Policy Report

This report provides and end-of-project account of the evaulation findings of the Enabling Our Future Belfast Interface Project Youth Intervention Project. The report details:

  • A full analysis of the peace and reconciliation outcomes of the project
  • Identification of factors that affected the achievement of the desired outcomes in terms of peace building and reconciliation and acknowleding and dealing with the past
  • Recommendations for future activities and policy

 

Exchanging Perceptions

The ‘Exchanging Perceptions’ programme was a significant element
within the larger Inner East Outer West project.
The programme included a series of six cross-community
photography workshops in Inner East Belfast, and six workshops
in Outer West Belfast, using disposable cameras, facilitated by a
professional photographer, and attended by residents from within
local interface communities.

Following from the photography workshops, an exhibition of the
images produced was staged at the Waterfront Hall over the period
October 14th to 24th 2013.
This publication contains a broader selection of photographs
produced through the workshops together with accompanying
narrative, including a number of interviews with workshop participants.

This publication was produced in hard copy as a back-to-back book with

the 'Inner East Outer West' publication, outlined below.

The Inner East Outer West Project

The Inner East Outer West (IEOW) project is a local peace-building
project in Belfast which was managed by Belfast Interface Project
and funded through Belfast City Council’s Good Relations Partnership
under the Special European Union Programmes Body (SEUPB)
PEACE lll initiative over the period July 2012 to December 2013.

The aims of the project were to:
• Develop relationships across interfaces in Inner East and Outer
   West Belfast.
• Develop collaborative working relationships amongst community
   and voluntary groups across each interface and between areas.
• Increase levels of mobility amongst project participants.
• Reduce levels of inter-community tension and violence at these
   interfaces

This publication outlines the broader 'Inner East Outer West' project and contains photos of participants across the range of project activities with their thoughts regarding the project.

This publication was produced in hard copy as a back-to-back book with the 'Exchanging Perceptions' publication, outlined above.

'Polish residents in Belfast'

'Polish residents in Belfast: Issues of discrimination, safety and integration' outlines the findings of a piece of research carried out on behalf of BIP by Iwona Wardach through the support of the European Grundtvig programme, and recently uploaded to our website.

The main aim of this research was to look at the situation of the minority Polish community in Belfast, in order to examine the main issues emerging in the process of integration of a relatively new community into local society in Belfast.

The research focuses on three main issues, which were outlined after discussions and interviews with local community leaders and are most relevant in terms of community relations:

1. Community safety and issues of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity.

2. Levels of integration, as well as knowledge about Belfast and its history.

3. Freedom of expressing religious and cultural identity.

Sharing Education in Interface Areas

The Institute for Conflict Research (ICR) and Belfast Interface Project (BIP) have recently (2013) undertaken research into the potential for sharing education in schools in interface areas of North Belfast.

Funded by the Integrated Education Fund (IEF), this research is part of a broader regional discussion on the nature of shared education, what this currently constitutes for communities and what the opportunities are for its development.

Belfast Interfaces: Security Barriers and Defensive Use of Space

This new research commissioned by Belfast Interface Project identifies and classifies the known security barriers and associated forms of defensive architecture in residential areas of Belfast.

Crossing the Line: Effective practice in the development of shared space in interface areas (2010)

This report is part of the Belfast Interface Project (BIP) ‘Supporting Sharing’ project 2010. The report considers ‘effective practice in promoting shared space at or near an interface’ by using information from desk research and interviews conducted with key stakeholders / practitioners. It describes the dynamics and the positive and negative lessons that practitioners and key stakeholders working at or near interfaces have reported.

Local Accomodation: Effective Practice in Responding to Disputes over Parades (2009)

This report analyses how the tensions over parades are being dealt with in towns and villages across Northern Ireland and the extent to which local attempts to reach accommodation have been successful in reducing tensions and move towards resolving the dispute. The research focuses primarily on disputes in smaller towns and rural areas and through highlighting areas where progress has been made the report aims to identify lessons that are applicable in trying to deal with disputes in other locations.

BIP Supporting Sharing project Terms of Reference
BIP Operational Plan 2009 - 2014
BIP Strategic Plan 2009 - 2014
The Whitewell Youth Mediation Project (2008)

The Whitewell Youth Mediation Project is an initiative to address youth-led interface violence, mobility restrictions and contemporary urban youth issues at a local level. This report is a case study of this ongoing project, documented through interviews and focus group discussions with project partners and participants.

Parades and Protests – An Annotated Bibliography (2007)

Given that parades and parade-related protests and disputes have generated division in recent years and that this division has translated into conflict in a number of interface areas, it seemed appropriate to commission the Institute for Conflict Research to bring together within one document a collection of abstracts of existing literature on this subject.

This annotated bibliography aims to provide a resource to people wishing to trace and understand the dynamics of current parades-related disputes and the various initiatives that have been taken in relation to these.

The bibliography summarises all of the main writings on the current cycle of parades and protests. These include academic studies and documents written by advocates of parading and by their opponents, and also a large number of policy documents that have been generated by the disputes over the past decade.

The document includes a number of studies that provide a historical background to parading in Northern Ireland, and also works that focus more on the loyal orders that are responsible for organising the parades.

As with our earlier ‘Interface Issues’ bibliography, BIP has brought together a library of hard copies of the source materials summarised within it. This library is housed in our offices and is available to BIP members and key stakeholders.

We aim, over future years, to continue to regularly update both this bibliography and the library of source materials as new literature is added.

We hope you will find this resource relevant and useful.

Interface Issues: 2007 Update by John Bell (ICR)

We produced in 2005 a collection of abstracts booklet called ‘Interface Issues: an annotated bibliography’, which contained summaries of 82 different pieces of literature that had been written about interface areas and issues over the period 1976-2004. We commissioned the Institute for Conflict Research (ICR) to prepare this for us.

This document represents the 2007 update to that booklet, prepared for us by ICR and containing summaries of approx 20 newer pieces of work, inc some that we missed last time. Again, BIP has brought together a library of hard copies of the source materials summarised within it. This library is housed in our offices and is available to BIP members and key stakeholders.

We aim, over future years, to continue to regularly update both the collection of abstracts document and the library of source materials as new literature is added.

We hope you will find this resource relevant and useful.

NIO-identified interfaces as compiled for us by ICR
Working at the Interface (2006)

Good Practice in Reducing Tension and Violence Written by Neil Jarman

Interface Issues: An Annotated Bibliography by Mary Conway & Jonny Byrne (2005)

Much has been written about interface areas and issues by researchers, academics, community and statutory agencies and others. This body of work represents a considerable store of knowledge and experience, insight, theory and opinion in this areas, gathered over many years. One of the aims of BIP is to enhance and develop the knowledge base regarding Belfast’s interface areas. In order to facilitate this process of knowledge development, it seemed appropriate to commission the Institute for Conflict Research to bring together within one document a collection of abstracts of existing literature.

Accompanying this document, BIP has brought together a library of hard copies of the source materials summarised within it. This library is housed in our offices and is available to BIP members and key stakeholders.

We aim, over future years, to regularly update both the collection of abstracts document and the library of source materials as new literature is added.

Survey of Membership Needs (2004)

The survey was structured in two sections. The first, An Audit of Interface Issues, examines perceptions of conditions and perceptions of change over the last ten years in interface communities across Belfast. Section Two, Members' Needs, contains further qualitative information regarding the support needs reported by BIP members.

Survey of Membership Needs - Executive Summary (2004)
1st Annual Conference (2004), Conference Report

Belfast Interface Project's first annual conference was held on 24th June 2004 on the theme 'Moving on at the Interface?'

Scoping Public Sector Perceptions of Interface Issues (2004)

Full PMG report commissioned by Belfast Interface Project.

A Policy Agenda for the Interface (2004)
Inner East Outer West: Addressing conflict in two interface areas (1999)
Interface Communities and the Peace Process (1998)

This document was prepared by Belfast Interface Project in 1998 and was based on the work of this project in identifying key issues of concern to interface communities within Belfast.

Young People on the Interface (1998)
Belfast City Council   Community Relations Council European Union Peace 3
Lloyds TSB Foundation NI   A project supported by PEACE III Programme
managed for the Special EU Programmes Body
by the Community Relations Council/Pobal Consortium