Introduction
In the period of the last Belfast City Council good relations strategy there were a few watershed moments commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and the 30th anniversary of ceasefires. The delivery of ceasefires and the Agreement, and marking their anniversaries, all occurred in Belfast.
As moments that symbolised the closing of a communal conflict that had affected and traumatised a generation, the ceasefires and Agreement ushered in an era of hope and aspiration for Belfast that it could not have imagined during the darkness of the conflict period.
Since that time Belfast has become almost unrecognisable. The physical and economic regeneration has been breathtaking for those that lived through The Troubles. The city centre is used and utilised by people from all backgrounds in a way that the parents and grandparents of the young people who now socialise freely, could not have imagined for themselves and are grateful to witness for their children.
Belfast is a different city from that in the 1990s, barely recognisable for people over 40 years old. Those under 40 years of age, who have grown up in a society relatively free from violent conflict, can imagine nothing else.
The courageous relationship-building and reconciliation work of many people from across the community can take credit for it.
And yet, Belfast is not a normal city. While there are ‘normal’ issues of poverty, dislocation, unlawfulness, and adapting to the changing and shifting challenges of a European region, there are deeper issues of segregation and legacy, mistrust and distrust, that are left over from the conflict years.
Our undoubted good relations progress facilitated groundbreaking community responses to the Covid pandemic; and helped formulate coordinated approaches to the more recent cultural expression and racism-related issues that have been experienced across these islands.
However, with the progress made and significant and serious relationships built, and while new relationships need nurtured and existing ones sustained, there is a need to go beyond good relations to a new iteration of a peace process that originated in Belfast. Conscious of old fears and issues still be to be addressed, amid the new fears and challenges, there is need to create a new dynamic of cohesion and belonging for Belfast that teaches others how to do it. This is something that this city can lead on, because Belfast, much more than other areas, knows the alternative.
Belfast has achieved so much since the end of conflict in the late 1990s, and building on those successes it is time to offer new direction in its peacebuilding leadership.
This strategy offers this new direction engaging a Whole Community and Whole Council approach with a focus on what needs to change and cross-sectoral measurement of that change.
In a city where people at different times are prone to criticise or undermine because of a real or perceived slight to community background, good relations is also a process of resilience. The council can therefore be rightly proud of what its good relations programmes have achieved over the years. While recognising those achievements, it is ready to further normalise the work it does to build a more cohesive Belfast where all people feel a stronger sense of belonging, regardless of where they are in the city or whatever their background and beliefs.
This strategy sets challenges for Belfast for 2035 and targets for 2050 that recognise the positives in difference and the strengths of diversity. Progress is not taken for granted; complacency and indifference have no place in the strategy while cohesion and belonging are pursued robustly.
Through a focus on transformative rather than performative activities, the strategy challenges all sectors and all sides of the community to build a more cohesive Belfast that values belonging for all.
