PeasPark featured in The Guardian ‘Peace Line’ Article
PeasPark (along with our our fabulous artichokes, in their prime.) has featured in The Guardian online article about peace lines in North Belfast by @PeterKGeoghegan
Will Belfast ever have a Berlin Wall moment and tear down its ‘peace walls’
Alongside other initiatives in the area, including the opening of Alexandra Park gates to allow better access to green space in the area, PeasPark was given as an example of change for the better despite the challenges that exist.
“But macro-political tensions can impinge on attempts to build relationships at street level. At Skegoneill Avenue in North Belfast, loyalist paramilitary flags fly from lamp-posts, even though the streets are mostly mixed and even include Belfast’s synagogue. In the shadow of an Ulster Volunteer Force [flag], lettuce and spinach sprout in Peas Park, a community garden created by local residents. Chickens cluck happily beside a shipping container that has been turned into a shop.
“People just independently started doing stuff,” says Callie Persic, an ebullient American who came to Belfast 20 years ago for her PhD in anthropology and stayed. The garden is particularly popular with young people. In September, there is a harvest day with food, music and face painting.
Peas Park, however, has not escaped Belfast territoriality. Earlier this summer, a fence was erected around the garden. “People have been saying to us, ‘You must feel safer now there is a fence,’” says Persic. “But I felt like, why are we putting up a gate at an interface?”