Unionists fears over H-Blocks museum plan
A campaign to turn the notorious H-Blocks into a permanent monument to the 30 years of bitter conflict stepped up a gear today with the staging of a major conference.
The Maze Prison, which once housed thousands of republican and loyalist prisoners, now lies empty, a sign of the progress made on the road to peace.
Now republican ex-prisoners group Coiste has called for part of the 360-acre site to be developed to house a museum of the troubles.
The group held the conference today in the new Island Centre in Lisburn, Co Antrim, to discuss its proposals to create a lasting memorial.
While the audience contained a small number of unionists, the gathering was overwhelmingly nationalist.
One of the organisers Paul Butler, a local Sinn Fein councillor, said it was vital to preserve something that had helped shape the history of the past three decades.
Mr Butler, who served 15 years in the Maze for killing a policeman, said a museum would help people not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
“It would be a crime if the place was bulldozed out of history.
“We think that a museum can help strengthen the peace process. It can be something that future generations can learn about and understand the failures of the past.”
He agreed that for the museum to be successful it must have the full backing of all sections of the community.
“We have tried to reach out to ex-loyalist prisoners and unionists. One of the reasons it is being held in this building is that we are trying to show we are committed to helping this city.
“Ten years ago, republicans would never have considered holding a conference in Lisburn.”
The Maze complex is one of six sites that has been handed by the British government to the power-sharing executive to develop as part of the Re-investment and Reform Initiative.
Although the Stormont administration is currently in suspension, a Maze consultative panel set up to consider ways of developing the site is continuing its work.
Sinn Fein’s representative on the panel, Mairtin O’Muilleoir, said an interpretative centre would draw visitors from around the world.
He did not believe that preserving part of the H-Blocks would deter other developers from investing in the site.
“Not if it is inclusive, if it help builds the peace, builds bridges and attracts visitors. A centre of that type could be a catalyst to bring visitors into the area,” he said.
Although loyalist ex-prisoners and unionist politicians declined to take part in the conference, Alan McBride, whose wife Sharon was killed in an IRA bomb on the Shankill Road in October 1993, accepted an invitation to attend.
Mr McBride, who now works for the cross-community victims group Wave, said he had concerns that a museum could be potentially divisive.
“I would have concerns that this site would turn out to be a republican project. I would only be interested if I thought it would add to the understanding of the entire community. How it is managed is going to be a key factor.
“If the exhibitions included the cells of notorious republican or loyalist prisoners I would find it very hard to visit.”
He added that Coiste needed to find a way of getting unionists and loyalists involved in the debate.
Edwin Poots, the Democratic Unionist Party’s representative on the consultative panel, was one of those fiercely opposed to the idea of a museum.
Mr Poots, who refused to attend the conference, said he feared it could become a focal point for those commemorating the hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981.
“I think the people behind the museum proposal will have a lot of work to do to convince the public and key influencers that this would not degenerate into a republican shrine,” he added.
