Removing a three-metre high piece of steel fencing would not normally be regarded as newsworthy, but in Water Street, Portadown, in recent days, it has become an event of welcome political significance.
The fence was one of what are normally called peace walls, seven of which were erected in the town between 1998 and 2002 to physically separate nationalists and unionists at a time of heightened sectarian tension.
The removal of the fence is only a small step in addressing the running sore of the approximately 20 remaining miles of peace walls in our society, but it represents progress.
In 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, few would have predicted that in many urban areas 27 years later, our sectarian divide would still be so entrenched that unionists and nationalists would have to be kept apart by purpose-built walls.
In 2013, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness pledged to remove all peace walls by 2023. Today, two years after their deadline, there are still up to 100 physical barriers of various types reflecting a society still deeply divided by sectarianism.
The latest draft Programme for Government from the Stormont Executive has no timetable for removing peace barriers. It looks like Stormont has given up on trying to remove them.
Robinson and McGuinness expressed the view that removing the peace barriers would improve community relations. While their aim was well meant, they might have recognised that improved community relations should come before, not after, the removal of the walls.
Although the peace barriers are an eyesore, they are not the real problem. They are merely symptoms of the sectarianism which still pervades our society. The walls will remain as long as sectarianism remains.
That was the significance of the removal of the barrier in Portadown – it was carried out with the support of the local communities. If the real barriers are in the minds of people, we can safely say that the removal of the Portadown peace fence represents a mind shift among people there. They are to be congratulated for their efforts.
In the meantime, many of our physical divides have become normalised and some have even become tourist attractions, particularly in Belfast. It is odd the Executive should promote tourism here on the basis of the peace process, while the symbols of a divided society have become tourist attractions.
As long as these walls remain, we cannot claim to enjoy genuine peace. We just have an end-of-war process, in which the Stormont Executive appears to have settled for an acceptable level of division. It must do better.
It could begin by recognising that this week, people in Portadown took a step towards the true meaning of peace.
