A
republican housing estate |
The
Good Friday Agreement commits the government to promoting integrated housing.
Two specific references are made: (i) Everyone should have the right to
choose his or her place of residence and to be left in peace there and (ii)
the desirability of facilitating and enabling people to live in mixed estates
if that is their wish. Section 75 (1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 imposes
an obligation upon the Executive in carrying out its functions to have regard
to the need to promote equality of opportunity between Protestants and Catholics
and between unionists and nationalists. Since the Troubles broke out in
1969 there has been an increase in the number of segregated housing estates.
In Belfast these estates are separated by a peace-line, a wall that acts
as a buffer along sectarian interfaces. In other parts of Northern Ireland
71 per cent of estates are segregated. There are only six districts where
mixed estates are the norm. These are Downpatrick, Banbridge, Antrim, Coleraine,
Larne and Limavady. |
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