When we should be doing all we can to break down barriers between communities, it’s depressing that consideration is being given to putting one back up again.
Residents living close to the Crumlin Road interface between Ardoyne and Woodvale have endured sustained anti-social behaviour.
In 2022 the Department of Justice said it was hoped the reopening of the Flax Street peaceline gate would “contribute to wider improvements” in the area.
That appears to have been a forlorn ambition.
The question has to be asked: have we really done enough to break the grip of community tensions and tribal politics to truly let go of the past?
This was also a week when Education Minister Paul Givan came in for criticism for meeting the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) — a body that includes representatives of paramilitaries — urging him to block an Irish language school in east Belfast.
Perhaps if he had told the LCC children should be encouraged to get into school, rather than onto the streets to cause trouble, that would have been worthwhile.
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Talking can be good, but those who do the talking need to be listening too.
Over 25 years ago the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
The majority of those born after 1998 have still not had the opportunity to vote in an election.
Perhaps, when they have their say, society can finally move forward.
The first ‘peace baby’ of the new era, Erin McArdle from Co Antrim, met Senator George Mitchell, the man who brokered the deal that ended the Troubles, for the first time this week at Queen’s University in Belfast.
Erin said she was able to live in a more inclusive society thanks to the Agreement.
She added: “I have grown up in the most loving, caring community.
“I have been able to do anything that I wanted. I have never felt that I couldn’t do anything.”
She is part of a new generation who know little of the 30 traumatic and painful years of the Troubles, and have a brighter future to look forward to.
This place has changed since 1998. But there is still a long way to go.
Young people can see the opportunities ahead and want to grasp them.
It would be a shame if the older generation persisted in maintaining those old barriers that kept us apart.
Hope, not hurt, must shape the future.