copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2013-10-07): Life for residents living at Northern Ireland's peace walls - Published Peace walls were first erected in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s as a temporary measure to minimise violence between nationalist and unionist communities. [...] "I think generally speaking people living at the coalface want the walls to stay," he said.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2022-01-05): More than 100 peace wall barriers remain across the North over two decades after the signing of the Belfast Agreement, a leading fund has said. [...] DCP manager Harry Smyth said local residents were involved in the design of a new interface, which he described as a "complete transformation to a lovely green link fence which you wouldn’t even know is a peace wall". [...] "People living at this peace wall couldn’t use their front doors as they were opening on to a barrier. Now they are not only using the front of their homes but are getting new gardens and the whole area has been opened up and completely transformed."
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2023-03-01): Two-thirds of residents want peace wall in Derry to stay Almost two-thirds of residents living next to a peace wall in Londonderry don’t want it to be removed.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2023-09-07): Twenty-five years after the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland, Belfast still bears the scars of decades of sectarian violence. So-called peace walls are barriers built to keep Catholic and Protestant communities apart. NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab reports from the still-divided city. [...] AL-KASSAB: Carter Gibson (ph) and Crystal McCann (ph) grew up around the corner from each other on either side of the wall. Crystal lives on the predominantly Catholic side and Carter on the predominantly Protestant side. The teenagers say they would have never crossed paths if they hadn't joined this youth club. The peace wall still divides their communities. [...] AL-KASSAB: Paul Crawford's father was killed in the conflict known as the Troubles. He campaigns for victims' rights, and he lives in the predominantly Catholic west Belfast. He wants the walls to stay put as a sort of war memorial.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2019-11-12): Peace walls: Support for removing barriers in Northern Ireland grows The number of people living beside Northern Ireland's peace walls who want them removed within the next generation has risen, according to a survey. [...] - Some 76% of responses from nearby residents were strongly in favour of the peace walls being removed within the lifetime of their children or grandchildren, compared to 68% two years ago - Some 34% of respondents reported anti-social behaviour (including drug misuse) as the key issue of local concern, compared to 10% in 2017 - While the Catholic, nationalist and republican (CNR) community favours change sooner (85% compared to 72% of Protestant, unionist, loyalist residents), both communities want to see barrier removal within the next generation - Researchers interviewed 637 people from across the six participating Peace Walls Programme areas for the face-to-face survey between May and June 2019 - Some 19% of respondents supported removing walls 'now' in comparison to 13% in 2017.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2023-12-31): Good progress is continuing to be made in negotiations to transform some of Northern Ireland's peace walls which separate communities. [...] The International Fund for Ireland support programmes in areas divided by peace walls working with local residents to support changes or in some cases removals. [...] He said they first started collecting statistics around peace walls in 2017 when 68% of people wanted peace walls down, which went to 76% in 2019 and 83% in 2022.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2023-08-03): Some homes beside the peace walls are still covered by metal cages, a sign that some residents on both sides believe the walls are necessary to prevent violence and enable them to continue living there. [...] Legacy of peace walls There are still over 20 miles of peace walls - or peace lines - across Northern Ireland, the Majority across Belfast.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2022-01-05): More than 100 peace wall barriers remain across Northern Ireland over two decades after the signing of the Belfast Agreement, a leading fund has said. [...] DCP manager Harry Smyth said local residents were involved in the design of a new interface, which he described as a "complete transformation to a lovely green link fence which you wouldn’t even know is a peace wall". [...] Read More "People living at this peace wall couldn’t use their front doors as they were opening on to a barrier. Now they are not only using the front of their homes but are getting new gardens and the whole area has been opened up and completely transformed."
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2015-12-15): Northern Ireland interfaces: More residents want peace walls to stay - Published There has been a rise in the number of residents, especially in Protestant areas, who want the nearest peace wall to remain standing, a survey suggests. [...] More than half of residents (55%) felt the peace walls sent out a bad image of Northern Ireland to people abroad.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2024-07-08): More than 3,500 people died during those decades of conflict known as the Troubles. And though the period largely ended with a peace deal in 1998, many of Northern Ireland’s Catholics and Protestants continue to live mostly separate lives. More than 90 percent of children go to schools segregated by religion. Some neighborhoods remain physically divided. Nearly one hundred barriers [PDF], including so-called peace walls, still crosscut the capital, Belfast. [...] Continuing Division: After the Good Friday Agreement, the cycle of tit-for-tat attacks by paramilitary groups ended. But that progress has not led to full integration between Northern Ireland’s divided communities. Instead, many Catholics and Protestants continue to live segregated from each other. Catholics and Protestant communities are sometimes physically separated by a barrier. Northern Ireland has more peace walls today than during the Troubles.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2013-06-17): Sylvia and her colleagues knew how hard it would be to do anything about a peace wall, but they reached out to the police, they reached out to the Department of Justice. They brought together people from across the communities. They knew it was going to be hard, but they tried anyway. And together, they all decided to build a gate to open that wall. And now, people can walk freely through the park and enjoy the sun -- when it comes out –- (laughter) -- just like people do every day in parks all around the world. A small bit of progress. But the fact that so far we’ve only got a gate open and the wall is still up means there’s more work to do. And that’s the work of your generation. As long as more walls still stand, we will need more people like Sylvia. We’ll need more of you, young people, who imagine the world as it should be; who knock down walls; who knock down barriers; who imagine something different and have the courage to make it happen. The courage to bring communities together, to make even the small impossibilities a shining example of what is possible. And that, more than anything, will shape what Northern Ireland looks like 15 years from now and beyond.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2023-04-26): As the hostilities unfolded, the number of what are paradoxically known as "peace walls" increased. Many became permanent fixtures. Even after the Good Friday Agreement formalised the end of the Troubles in 1998, peace walls continued to be built. [...] In Belfast, gates and walls are often considered as means of solving problems but their presence divides opinion. If there is support for removing them, particularly among younger generations, a survey prepared for the UK Department of Justice in 2020 showed that 42% of people want the walls to remain in place for reasons of security and safety. Research has indeed shown that for communities living with this history of violence, the barriers provide a sense of security, so people are worried about the consequences of removing them. The idea of implementing other changes was put to respondents, including installing CCTV cameras, improving youth programmes and promoting opportunities for the two communities to come together. While this made some people reconsider their position, 17% stated that they would not want peace walls to come, down no matter what preparations are made.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2023-04-07): Retaining Troubles-era "peace walls" between Catholic and Protestant areas seemed advisable even though the 1998 Good Friday agreement had supposedly ushered in an era of peace and reconciliation. [...] Society and politics are sectarian and dysfunctional. Loyalist and republican paramilitaries still wield control in some communities. Children still tend to go to Catholic or Protestant schools, and families still tend to live in Catholic or Protestant areas. Peace walls still proliferate, especially in Belfast. One at Cupar Way, between the Falls and Shankill, stands 45-feet tall, three times higher than the Berlin Wall, and in place for twice as long. [...] Few would dispute that. But there is no clamour to remove peace walls. Partly it stems from fear of trouble, if not the Troubles. Petrol bombs whizzed over an interface at Lanark Way, dividing the Shankill and Falls, in Easter 2021. "Perhaps it’s best to keep them up because if they came down there might be more ruckus," said Gemma Louise, 30, a mother on the Shankill side.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2023-09-07): Belfast's peace walls, built in the Troubles to tamp sectarian violence, were slated to be torn down in 2023. But locals are protesting. Many want them preserved as war relics & public art. Twenty-five years after the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland, Belfast still bears the scars of decades of sectarian violence. So-called peace walls are barriers built to keep Catholic and Protestant communities apart. NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab reports from the still-divided city. [...] AL-KASSAB: Paul Crawford's father was killed in the conflict known as the Troubles. He campaigns for victims' rights, and he lives in the predominantly Catholic west Belfast. He wants the walls to stay put as a sort of war memorial.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2018-05-03): Many residents view the peace walls as a necessary form of protection. [...] The north Belfast teenager added that "in generations to come", the people who want to keep the peace walls would no longer be around, but her generation would still be affected by their decisions. [...] In fact, there are now more peace walls across Northern Ireland than there were before the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2017-06-21): Thankfully, the city center is neutral ground and residents can interact freely there, but the neighborhoods surrounding the city are where the trouble is located and many residents have never even stepped foot on the ground of the opposite side of town. A Peace Wall was built in the 70’s to separate the city into two parts dividing the Loyalists and Nationalists; this wall still stands today, and many of the roads have gates that close every evening to keep the separation at bay and "peace" in the air. The houses on either side of the wall have gates covering their backyards and bullet proof windows to protect them in case of a shooting/bombing/etc. attack as they are right on the front line. There are people who have never ventured to the opposing side of town even though it is so close. And the most confusing part about all of this is the majority of the residents actually want to keep the peace wall up because they don’t feel safe without it. This is all happening even still today, in a developed Eastern European country; granted the city has seen strides of improvement since the political problems began.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2020-01-13): The walls were meant to be temporary, but they helped to calm tensions and decrease attacks between the two communities living in close proximity and became permanent. Today, many residents who live along these walls still want them to remain. [...] "If we look at [peace walls] in a realistic world, we shouldn’t need them, but also in a realistic world, it gives me more sense of security," he said at his doorstep with a giant sign that reads, "Welcome to loyalist Cluan Place. Unbowed, unbroken," on the peace wall directly beside his home. [...] But for Brennan, Forsyth, Thompson and many others living near peace walls in Belfast and around Northern Ireland, it seems they are going to be a source of security for the foreseeable future.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2019-08-15): 'The peace wall is better staying up. I don't want it taken down. We had a questionnaire asking us how we'd feel if the peace wall came down...it'd just be murder on the street' [...] "The peace wall is better staying up. I don’t want it taken down," she says. "We had a questionnaire coming round asking us how we’d feel if the peace wall came down. I’d be away because it’d just be murder on the street." [...] That same year, the Northern Ireland Executive’s Together: Building a United Community strategy plan aimed to remove all peace walls – or "interface barriers" – by 2023. This now appears optimistic, not least in the continued absence of a devolved government in Northern Ireland, and the communities that live near peace walls remain among the most deprived in the North.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2021-04-21): Temporary barricades put up to quell the violence eventually "hardened into permanent lines of demarcation" and became "the so-called peace walls which still divide Belfast’s streets", said The Irish Times in a 2019 article on why some Belfast residents "want to keep their peace walls". [...] In 2019, the International Fund for Ireland’s Community Attitudes to Peace Walls Survey found that 76% of residents in Belfast were strongly in favour of the barriers being removed "within the lifetime of their children or grandchildren" - up from 69% in a 2017 poll. [...] The existence of peace walls is still strongly linked to safety and security for many Belfast residents, with 58% in the more recent survey viewing this as the main function of the barriers.
Claim: More residents want peace walls to stay. (Ulster University, 2015-01-12)
Evidence (2012-11-14): The Peace Wall – or should I say walls, since there are many of them? – has been in place since the late 1960s, when the Troubles first began. They were intended as temporary structures, but were later made permanent. They run all through Belfast, covering more than 13 miles of the city. The tallest stand more than 40 feet high, and many are lined with barbed wire at top; they looked like massive military barricades. Some have been decorated with murals, but many parts of the wall remain rather unsightly. [...] The Peace Walls separate the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods of Belfast. In the event of a riot or a bombing, the few gates within the wall are designed to close, ostensibly to protect the people who live nearby. [...] After all, the Peace Walls were erected at the request of the people of Belfast. This was not something imposed upon them unfairly by the government; this was something that the community wanted. Those who live on the borders between the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods note how much safer they feel with the barriers in place (70% of them want to the walls to remain up, though among the rest of Northern Ireland, the walls are much less popular).
Claim: Over half of the residents in Fermanagh & Omagh District Council are living in poverty. (The Fermanagh Herald, 2019-01-23)
Evidence (2019-01-23): This claim is inaccurate. 25.1% of people in Fermanagh and Omagh lived in relative and/or absolute poverty, from 2012-15. The claim was corrected by the Fermanagh Herald on 6 February 2019.
Claim: Over half of the residents in Fermanagh & Omagh District Council are living in poverty. (The Fermanagh Herald, 2019-01-23)
Evidence (2022-03-02): In its 23 January 2019 edition, the Fermanagh Herald reported that "just over half of everyone in the local district is living in poverty". The article explained: "in total, 25.1 percent of people in Fermanagh and Omagh area are living in relative poverty, while 25.1 percent are living in absolute poverty". The article says the figure is revealed in a report called "Poverty in Fermanagh and Omagh: A Statistical Overview", sourced from the Fermanagh & Omagh District Council. The report includes a presentation by data scientist, Alan Mitchell, for the Council. [...] The Fermanagh Herald published a correction to its article on 6 February 2019 (page 10) (see above image): "On January 23 the Herald ran a story ‘Shocking survey shows full scale of hidden poverty in Fermanagh’. In this [article], it was stated over half of everyone in the county was living in poverty. This statement was based on a Council report that stated the most recent statistics showed 25.1 percent of the local population was living in relative poverty and 25.1 percent were living in absolute poverty … The Council has since clarified to the Herald these figures overlapped and referred to the same group of people. As such, the total living in poverty, of both kinds, is 25.1 percent. We are happy to make this correction."
Claim: Over half of the residents in Fermanagh & Omagh District Council are living in poverty. (The Fermanagh Herald, 2019-01-23)
Evidence (2024-07-04): Fermanagh and Omagh District Council has launched its new Corporate Plan, Our Council, Our Plan 2024-2028. [...] Speaking about the Corporate Plan, Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Councillor John McClaughry, said: [...] In developing the Corporate Plan, the Council recognised the significant and ongoing challenges faced by residents and businesses in recent years including the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical uncertainty and the cost of living and cost of doing business crisis. This Plan seeks to address the lasting and ongoing impacts of these challenges by being forward and outward looking.
Claim: Over half of the residents in Fermanagh & Omagh District Council are living in poverty. (The Fermanagh Herald, 2019-01-23)
Evidence (2024-09-19): Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, like many local authorities, faces immense challenges. Managing finances in a postausterity world is no easy task, and the Council has a long list of pressing priorities that need attention. For instance, there are serious concerns about the state of the local streetscape. [...] At the end of the day, the people of Fermanagh and Omagh expect more from their Council. [...] It is time for the Council to get its house in order, to face the tough questions, and to start delivering the kind of accountability and transparency that the people of Fermanagh and Omagh deserve. And we, as a newspaper, will continue to ask those questions, no matter how uncomfortable they may be.
Claim: Over half of the residents in Fermanagh & Omagh District Council are living in poverty. (The Fermanagh Herald, 2019-01-23)
Evidence (2023-04-24): Aligned with the vision of the Fermanagh and Omagh Community Plan 2030, the Plan Strategy aims to create a welcoming, shared, and inclusive district that is healthy, safe, connected, and prosperous, while cherishing and sustainably managing its natural, built, and cultural heritage. It focuses on creating sustainable communities through housing, job creation, enterprise promotion, tourism support, and provision of services and facilities, within a well-planned natural and built environment. [...] Speaking about the adoption of the plan, Councillor Barry McElduff, Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, said, "The Local Development Plan is a crucial document that will shape the future of our district. It reflects our commitment to sustainable and inclusive development, and will guide our efforts in creating a prosperous, resilient, and vibrant community for our residents, businesses, and visitors." [...] The Council remains dedicated to engaging with the community and stakeholders in Fermanagh and Omagh to enable sustainable development, maximize opportunities, and protect the environment for future generations.
Claim: Over half of the residents in Fermanagh & Omagh District Council are living in poverty. (The Fermanagh Herald, 2019-01-23)
Evidence (2015-06-16): Of the 91,000 people of working age (over-16) living in Fermanagh and Omagh, 55 per cent are in employment, four per cent are unemployed and 40 per cent are classed as "economically inactive" - figures which, the plan states, are "comparable to or slightly below" the Northern Ireland average. [...] With regard to deprivation, the council document states that only one ward in Fermanagh and Omagh is ranked amongst the 100 most deprived wards in Northern Ireland. However, five of the 10 most remote wards in the province are located in the region. Also analysing the health of Fermanagh and Omagh residents, the Corporate Plan states that over 20 per cent of the population have a long-term problem or disability that limits their daily activities and a further 11 per cent provide unpaid care to family, friends or neighbours.
Claim: Over half of the residents in Fermanagh & Omagh District Council are living in poverty. (The Fermanagh Herald, 2019-01-23)
Evidence (2024-01-31): Fermanagh and Omagh District Council prepares to set 2024-2025 budget 31st January 2024 Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is preparing to agree its budget for the 2024-2025 financial year at a Special Council meeting on Thursday 08 February 2024. [...] The Council also developed and approved a number of key strategic plans to improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the district. These included the Enniskillen and Omagh Place Shaping Plans; a Visitor Experience Development Plan for Fermanagh Lakelands and Omagh and the Sperrins and the Local Development Plan – Plan Strategy which will provide a framework for decision making on land use for planning, housing, employment, retail, infrastructure and developments until 2030. These strategic plans and associated actions will continue to be taken forward by the Council to enhance the wellbeing of residents and the district overall into the future.