Maze Prison peace centre architect urges Stormont to end stalemate

The architect behind a proposed peace centre at the former Maze Prison site has urged Stormont leaders to end their 12-year deadlock over the project.

The jail closed in 2000 and while most of the prison buildings near Lisburn have been demolished, some were listed and retained.

But £300m regeneration plans for the site have been in limbo since 2013.

Daniel Libeskind said that claims a peace centre at the former prison site would be a shrine to terrorism were "absurd".

"How absurd those statements were, because this was absolutely the opposite of it," he told the BBC's The View programme.

The Polish-American architect oversaw the building of the 9/11 Ground Zero memorial in New York and the Jewish Museum in Berlin and says he remains committed to delivering the project in Northern Ireland.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme on Thursday, Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist Party ( DUP) said:" The Maze site represents an economic opportunity, but we can't ignore the reality that the site is contaminated by the retention of those buildings associated with the prison".

"To ignore those sensitivities is wrong," he added.

Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood told the programme that the development of the Maze represented a "new start for everybody in Northern Ireland, and a chance to tell our story together in a way that is sensitive and respectful".

"This is also something that has huge untold economic and social potential, but the DUP and Sinn Féin have proved that they are incapable of moving this forward," she said.

The development site stretches to almost 350 acres - one of Northern Ireland's largest in public ownership.

The high-security jail held paramilitary prisoners during the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles.

It was the site of republican hunger strikes in 1981 during which 10 inmates starved themselves to death.

Plans for a centre for peace and conflict resolution were blocked in August 2013 by then first minister Peter Robinson from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

It followed pressure from unionists who claimed the site would become a "shrine to terrorism".

Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness, then deputy first minister, later said that no further development would take place until the dispute was resolved.

Since then, most requests to visit the prison buildings have been refused by The Executive Office - the joint department of the first and deputy first ministers.

Mr Libeskind told The View: "We cannot continue living with the violence and the ghosts of the past. We have to move forward.

"I'm surprised personally that Belfast cannot come together, that the conflict is still there in the political levels, which should certainly see that the world is changing around us.

"And should see that something positive should be done on that site."

The Maze Long Kesh Development Corporation (MLKDC) was set up to regenerate the site, which it believes could attract £800m of investment and up to 14,000 jobs.

But its work has been restricted due to the continuing political stalemate.

Its chief executive last month said its role has been "essentially limited to health and safety".

Terence Brannigan, who chaired the MLKDC board for more than a decade, said they had tried to take decisions about the former prison "out of politics".

He said they had proposed to The Executive Office a set of protocols to manage the prison buildings and peace centre.

"We were prepared to take that responsibility but unfortunately we weren't given that opportunity," he added.

Mr Brannigan said the site has "massive potential in terms of jobs, in terms of economy, and in terms of bringing prosperity to Northern Ireland".

He said it was "shameful for us as a collective, for us, this community" that the site "has not delivered what it is capable of delivering for our people here".

A new six-member board for the Maze Long Kesh Development Corporation (MLKDC) was appointed in November 2023 for a five-year term.

But BBC News NI has learned two members have since stepped down.

Áine Gallagher, a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, said she left the board last month due to other work commitments.

Mark Adrain, group property director at the Henderson Group, quit in September last year due to "time constraints", a spokeswoman said.

The Executive Office (TEO), which made the appointments, said the two board members stepped down "recently".

"The reasons for these resignations are a matter for the individual board members," a spokesperson for the department said.

The board has been operating without a chairperson for more than a year.

"Options on future board appointments are currently under consideration," the spokesperson added in a statement.

The annual agricultural event the Balmoral Show is held at the site and the air ambulance and Ulster Aviation Society (UAS) are also based there.

UAS manager Ray Burrows said it has "absolutely fantastic potential".

"I see the potential that has come with us being here and I see no reason why anybody who comes here cannot realise the same potential," he said.

"If there was a collection of things to come and see, there'd be tens of thousands of people visiting this site annually."