{"id":26705,"date":"2025-04-10T05:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/maze-prison-peace-centre-architect-urges-stormont-to-end-stalemate\/"},"modified":"2025-04-10T05:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:31:07","slug":"maze-prison-peace-centre-architect-urges-stormont-to-end-stalemate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/maze-prison-peace-centre-architect-urges-stormont-to-end-stalemate\/","title":{"rendered":"Maze Prison peace centre architect urges Stormont to end stalemate"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Brendan Hughes<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News NI political reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The former Maze Prison, near Lisburn, closed in 2000<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The architect behind a proposed peace centre at the former Maze Prison site has urged Stormont leaders to end their 12-year deadlock over the project.<\/p>\n

The jail closed in 2000 and while most of the prison buildings near Lisburn have been demolished, some were listed and retained.<\/p>\n

But \u00a3300m regeneration plans for the site have been in limbo since 2013.<\/p>\n

Daniel Libeskind told the BBC’s The View that claims a peace centre at the former prison site would be a shrine to terrorists<\/a> were “absurd”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“How absurd those statements were, because this was absolutely the opposite of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Polish-American architect oversaw the building of the 9\/11 Ground Zero memorial in New York and the Jewish Museum in Berlin and says he remains committed to delivering the project in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PacemakerPacemaker Press<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Republican IRA and INLA inmates died during a hunger strike in the prison in 1981<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The development site stretches to almost 350 acres – one of Northern Ireland’s largest in public ownership.<\/p>\n

The high-security jail held paramilitary prisoners during the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was the site of republican hunger strikes in 1981<\/a> during which 10 inmates starved themselves to death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"StudioStudio Libeskind<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

An artist’s impression of plans for a peace centre on the site of the former Maze Prison<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Plans for a centre for peace and conflict resolution were blocked in August 2013 by then first minister Peter Robinson from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).<\/p>\n

It followed pressure from unionists who claimed the site would become a “shrine to terrorism”.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in’s Martin McGuinness, then deputy first minister, later said that no further development would take place until the dispute was resolved.<\/p>\n

Since then, most requests to visit the prison buildings have been refused by The Executive Office – the joint department of the first and deputy first ministers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Architect<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Architect Daniel Libeskind says Northern Ireland must move forward<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mr Libeskind told The View: “We cannot continue living with the violence and the ghosts of the past. We have to move forward.<\/p>\n

“I’m surprised personally that Belfast cannot come together, that the conflict is still there in the political levels, which should certainly see that the world is changing around us.<\/p>\n

“And should see that something positive should be done on that site.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Stormont stalemate<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The Maze Long Kesh Development Corporation (MLKDC) was set up to regenerate the site, which it believes could attract \u00a3800m of investment and up to 14,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

But its work has been restricted due to the continuing political stalemate.<\/p>\n

Its chief executive last month said its role has been “essentially limited to health and safety”<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Terence<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Terence Brannigan was chairman of the Maze Long Kesh Development Corporation<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Terence Brannigan, who chaired the MLKDC board for more than a decade, said they had tried to take decisions about the former prison “out of politics”.<\/p>\n

He said they had proposed to The Executive Office a set of protocols to manage the prison buildings and peace centre.<\/p>\n

“We were prepared to take that responsibility but unfortunately we weren’t given that opportunity,” he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Brannigan said the site has “massive potential in terms of jobs, in terms of economy, and in terms of bringing prosperity to Northern Ireland”.<\/p>\n

He said it was “shameful for us as a collective, for us, this community” that the site “has not delivered what it is capable of delivering for our people here”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Aircraft is currently on display in hangars at the old Maze site<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The annual agricultural event the Balmoral Show is held at the site and the air ambulance and Ulster Aviation Society<\/a> (UAS) are also based there.<\/p>\n

UAS manager Ray Burrows said it has “absolutely fantastic potential”.<\/p>\n

“I see the potential that has come with us being here and I see no reason why anybody who comes here cannot realise the same potential,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If there was a collection of things to come and see, there’d be tens of thousands of people visiting this site annually.”<\/p>\n

You can watch The View on BBC One Northern Ireland and iPlayer on Thursday at 22:40 BST.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brendan Hughes BBC News NI political reporter PA Media The former Maze Prison, near Lisburn, closed in 2000 The architect behind a proposed peace centre at the former Maze Prison site has urged Stormont leaders to end their 12-year deadlock over the project. The jail closed in 2000 and while most of the prison buildings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[6231,579,9473,508,3331,9474,2468,384],"class_list":["post-26705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-n-ireland","tag-architect","tag-centre","tag-maze","tag-peace","tag-prison","tag-stalemate","tag-stormont","tag-urges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26707,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26705\/revisions\/26707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}