Ireland: borders and borderlines

The troubled history of Derry-Londonderry is still visible in the city. A map on the riverside directs visitors to the Bloody Sunday Memorial and the H Block Monument, while the Peace Bridge, opened in 2011, physically and symbolically links the largely unionist ‘Waterside’ with the largely nationalist ‘Cityside’. One of the outcomes of the peace process has been to dismantle many of the hard borders that used to divide communities both within the North and between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the South. On an average weekend the city is filled with pedestrians from both sides of the border. The easy movement between these jurisdictions is now an everyday reality for these communities. The Peace Bridge became a focal point for events during the City of Culture Celebrations in 2013, the River Foyle thus becoming ‘a route rather than barrier - a place where events occur rather than a liminal space between two sides of the city’.1 On either side of the bridge there is a plaque recognising the support of European Regional Development Fund. It is one of many visible signs of EU involvement in the recent development of the city..