CHRISTINE FENZL photography



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Along the Peacelines

November 2000 Belfast, Northern Ireland


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.

Margrethe Lauber

© christine fenzl 2022