In Belfast, Northern Ireland Christine Fenzl photographed children who live along the "peacelines ".
These walls seperated neighboring Protestant and Catholic communities - groups that share
both a common urban boundary and history of religious and political conflict.
Residential segregation has been a long standing feature of life in the city since rapid
industrialization in the late 19th century led to an extreme groth in population.
The contributing
factors of working- class competition, cultural hegemony and nationalist struggle
greatly exascerbated the existing historical disagreement between Protestants and
Catholics - an argument which has caused both scenes of sporadic violence and situations of
long- term armed conflict. As a result, sectarian interfaces within the network of the city have
developed over time from invisible social boundaries to provisional barricades and finally, to
permanent physical barriers.
The current peace process in Northern Ireland ( 30/31 July 2007 ) is the attempt to bridge the
gap that occurs in this divided society and at these walls.The children in these pictures
represent the generation who might make it possible to dissmantle these social and physical
structures.