Accord on 'Maze' prison as centre for peace

AGREEMENT ON the development of the 360-acre site of the former Maze/Long Kesh prison as a peace-building and conflict resolution facility has been reached between First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

The deal was announced by Mr McGuinness at Newry yesterday during the opening of a motorway section on the Dublin-Belfast route. Details were released later by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

The Ministers will table a motion in the Northern Ireland Assembly “at the earliest possible opportunity” to debate the draft Strategic Investment and Regeneration of Sites (Maze/Long Kesh Development Corporation) (Northern Ireland) Order 2010.

If approved by the Assembly the corporation will be operational within six months and will oversee the opening and redevelopment of the site “including the construction of a peace-building and conflict resolution facility”.

Mr McGuinness said the First Minister’s office would shortly submit an application for EU funding for what he anticipated would be “a world-class facility of international importance”.

The facility, located 14km from Belfast on the outskirts of Lisburn, would be “designed to strengthen our peace-building expertise and to share our experiences with others throughout the world”.

Mr McGuinness said it was believed that the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society would relocate there during the first phase of the redevelopment.

Mr Robinson said: “The site, which is some 360 acres, could potentially create some 6,000 jobs, securing the construction industry in Northern Ireland for years to come. This announcement represents agreement on another one of the outstanding issues facing the Executive.”

When the prison closed in September 2000, the British government presented the site to the Northern Ireland Executive.

Originally a base for Britain’s Royal Air Force, the Maze/Long Kesh was used to house loyalist and republican prisoners from 1971 to 2000.