In one of the quietest marching seasons in memory the often volatile interface at Belfast's Springfield Road was one of the flashpoint areas which remained calm. Here Simon Doyle hears of the hard work behind the scenes which helped to ease tensions.
As the marching season reached its climax, two contentious parades with a history of violence at a notorious Belfast interface passed off peacefully.
The Whiterock Parade, which passed along part of the nationalist Springfield Road, had been the scene of serious clashes in recent years.
It was feared that the Parades Commission's decision to allow the Orange Order parade in June to emerge onto the Springfield Road through the peaceline at Workman Avenue would result in further clashes this summer.
A last ditch bid by the Springfield Road residents group aimed at averting serious trouble at the June march was rejected by the Orange Order.
But that parade and a subsequent one on July 12 both passed off without major incident.
The Springfield Intercommunity Development Project (SICDP) has been praised for its role in helping defuse tensions at the west Belfast interface leading up to the marching season.
The group, which represents voluntary community activists on both sides of the peaceline, said it had an ongoing responsibility to support efforts aimed at de-escalating tension and offering respite to those living along interfaces.
The forum has been working since 1988 to reduce tensions and conflict along the interface by developing mutual respect in both communities through dialogue.
Roisin McGlone, SICDP chief executive, said interface residents endured sectarian tension and violence on a year round basis, but this escalated during the summer period.
"We must recognise that sectarianism is ever-present in our society but often displayed through aggression and unrest at interfaces," she said.
"The quality of life for these people is characterised by deprivation, social exclusion and the stress of potential and actual hostility."
SICDP has introduced a mobile phone network to allow community activists immediate contact with their counterparts on the other side when small incidents, which have the potential to deteriorate into serious trouble, occur.
"What we really do is try to stop trouble before it starts and we have done that very effectively for four years now," Ms McGlone said.
SICDP member Sean Murray is an activist from the Clonard area of west Belfast.
He said the mobile phone network helped stop trouble before it broke out.
"Part of the problem is that rumours spread and if there is no communication and cross-community dialogue then the rumours can build into something massive. That is one aspect of the mobile phone network," Mr Murray said.
"If someone says, for example, in Clonard, that there's 50 to 100 people gathering just across the peaceline in the Shankill, we can contact someone.
"It can be innocent enough. They could be going to a football match or there might be a disco on. We can establish that right away."
Billy McQuiston, from the Highfield Residents Association on the loyalist side of the interface, said that while mobile phones dispelled rumours, negotiations were vital in reducing tensions.
"Communities have to talk to each other and unless they are talking to each other they are not going to get anywhere.
"Rumours can fly around a street and become truth by the time they get to the other end, if no-one is talking," he said.
"But if people are sitting around and talking regularly they are building up relationships and trust with each other.
"There are a load of things going on on a daily basis that we would be dealing with in conjunction with each other.
"Even if someone had a successful summer scheme going we would advise each other.
"It is everyone working together for the betterment of the whole area."
Both Mr Murray and Mr McQuiston said dialogue had developed and it had reached the stage where people could sit down and talk about emotive issues such as parading.
The Springfield Road residents group offered to allow Orangemen to walk through the nationalist Springfield Road in June if they agreed to abide by a five-point plan aimed at averting serious trouble.
The deal, which if adopted would have seen the Orange Order use an alternative route through the disused Mackies factory, was said to have the support of the majority of both communities. But it failed to win the support of the Orange Order.
Ms McGlone said, despite a lack of movement on the parades issue, SICDP had shown that face-to-face meetings could successfully reduce interface tensions.
"There's a real commitment there. There's relationships, there's accountability and also there is a greater understanding from both communities about what the issues are," she said.
"It is also about developing relationships between both communities and between activists on both sides.
"What happens in these contact situations are that people are exposed to the other community in a more positive way and it means that the demonisation of the other community disappears."
Mr Murray added that such meetings helped both communities develop a better understanding of the sensitivities of those living on the other side of the peaceline.
"One of the good things about engaging in dialogue, apart from dealing with the issues at hand, you start to realise commonalities, what you have in common," he said.
