Politics
"No GAA player would play on the rubble of H-Blocks and in particular the hospital wing where 10 republicans died on hunger strike"
Paul Butler, Sinn Féin(1)

The site is controversial to say the least – “the site of the most notorious prison in postwar western Europe”(2) – and with it comes a long and nasty history. Infamous because of paramilitaries from ‘both sides’; its name will be synonymous with terrorism for many years to come.

The Government has an ambitious plan to reinvent the Maze as a symbol of a community that has left such terrible deeds behind. They need a landmark project to do this and have decided the multi-sports stadium is the key to this.

As a consequence, more suitable sites have been dismissed. At their request, Coiste na n-larchimi, a republican ex-prisoners group, was invited to make their case to the Maze Panel. They argued for the retention of certain key buildings. With some saying the site should be leveled, An Coiste accepted the current proposal(3) and the structures were immediately listed by the Environment and Heritage Service.

Although the SIB assured us that the site would be a neutral space, it is hard to believe that the site will not be honoured as a place of martyrdom turning it into a ghoulish tourist attraction. This is unlikely to endear the site to an average sports fan who is not interested in such controversial and divisive political symbolism.

The Stadium itself is being used as a political football with Lagan Valley and Lisburn politicians championing it whilst their colleagues in Belfast have an opposing view.

Sport is supposed to bring communities together but there is a danger that the International Centre for Conflict Transformation (ICCT) will only serve to drive a wedge between people. To have a sensitive political building like the Hospital Wing standing so close to the stadium increases the political significance of the site.

We also note that the actual potential of a shared stadium to bring communities together is overstated. Obviously the stadium will only ever be used by each sport separately on different occasions: it will not literally bring, e.g. GAA and rugby supporters together.

This will be exacerbated at a rural out-of-town site. However, if a stadium was sited within Belfast, where communities mix on a daily basis, this objective could be easily achieved. Fans attending events at the stadium would be in the city centre in pubs, restaurants and shops before games.

What is sad is the lack of political will. In the UK, the Labour Party fought for stadiums to be built in the cities and to become icons for each National Association. They do not have the same appetite to see that football in Northern Ireland is treated as an equal with the other three ‘home nations’.

Sports fans simply want a sports stadium; they do not want their stadium to be entangled in controversial politics, or used as a vehicle for others’ political agendas .

(1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4289233.stm

(2) ‘One More Battle To Win, Henry McDonald, The Observer, September 11th 2005

(3) Irish News, 5 th May 2005