Political Sensitivities
The Maze or ‘Long Kesh’ site is controversial, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a symbol of the most grotesque aspects of Northern Ireland’s history and now the government plans to re-brand the Maze as some kind of feel-good symbol of a community that has consigned its violent history to the past where it belongs. This is all fine in theory, but has nothing whatsoever to do with sport.
As part of this policy, there will be an “International Centre for Conflict Transformation” housed in listed buildings of the former prison, including the hospital where the hunger strikers died in 1981 and many fear it could be used to vindicate and legitimise actions seen by the majority of the population as criminal and terrorist. Regardless of the question of whether the Maze plans will be a ‘shared space’ or in any way contribute towards a shared future (since the stadium can and will only be ever be used by one of the sports at a time), sporting bodies, some of whom spend a lot of time and energy trying to bring communities together, could become embroiled in developments that cause nothing but division.
StadiumForBelfast, in common with most sports fans, would never object to the idea of bringing communities together and ending conflict. That benefits us all. The problem is that as a consequence of the government’s blind adherence to (and misguided implementation of) this policy, more suitable sites for the stadium have been ignored or rejected for no good reason – in fact in some cases, reasons had to be invented.
To quote one fan: “Sports fans simply want a sports stadium; they do not want their stadium to be entangled in controversial politics, or used as a vehicle for others’ political agendas.”