Fountain Estate and nationalist Bishop Street area of Derry. In 2008, a public discussion began about how and when the peace lines could be removed. Belfast City Council agreed to develop a strategy regarding the removal of peace walls on 1 September 2011. At the end of 2011, several local community initiatives resulted in the opening of a number of interface structures for a trial period. A study was released in 2012 indicating that 69% of residents believe that the peace walls are still necessary because of potential violence. In January 2012, the International Fund for Ireland launched a Peace Walls funding programme to support local communities who want to work towards beginning to remove the peace walls. In May 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive committed to the removal of all peace lines by mutual consent by 2023. In 2017, the Belfast Interface Project published a study entitled "Interface Barriers, Peacelines & Defensive Architecture" that identified 97 separate walls, barriers and interfaces in Belfast. A history of the development of these structures can be found at the Peacewall Archive. In September 2017, the Northern Ireland Department of Justice published its Interface Programme, established to deliver the commitment made by the Northern Ireland Executive to remove all Interface structures by 2023 under the Together: Building a United Community Strategy. In September 2019, a series of events were held in Belfast to mark the anniversary of 50 years of peace lines in the city. This included an international conference alongside other events to discuss the past and possible future of the peace lines. See also Defensive wall Interface area Segregation in Northern Ireland References Further reading James O’Leary (28 October 2022) Belfast’s ‘peace walls’: How the politics and policy of 1969-1971 shaped the city’s contemporary ‘interface areas.’ Chapter 13 (pp 203-219) in The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Vol I, (ISBN 9781003112464) DOI. Edited by Bobic and Haghighi, Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group, New York). Belfast Interface Project (2 June 2017). Interface Barriers, Peacelines and Defensive Architecture, , Belfast 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2017 External links Peacewall Archive (An archive of photos, maps, texts and links relating to Belfast's Peacelines) Belfast Interface Project Interfaces Map (An interactive map locating all Interface barriers in Northern Ireland, surveyed in 2017) NI Department of Justice Interface Programme (established to deliver the commitment made by the Northern Ireland Executive to remove all Interface