Professor Dominic Bryan of Queens University (right side) led the Hidden Barriers bus tour for the participants of the Memolab. A focal point of the tour was the towering 'Peace Walls’, tangible symbols of division erected to shield opposing factions from the darkest extremes of one another. In peacetime, however, these imposing structures took on an unintended role as barriers, hindering the integration of two communities.

As part of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Memolab, TMIN partipated in a walking tour of the Derry City. This tour showed the divided nature of people’s existence within the city. The tour included a history of the city and involved walking the walls of the city, which are about 1.5km in circumference and were built between 1613-1618. The tour however also focused on division in the city that goes back centuries and has manifest in divided communities.

TMIN participants took part on a guided bus tour, led by Professor Dominic Bryan of Queens University, immersed in the turbulent tale of 'The Troubles,' a conflict etched into the fabric of Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1998. Professor Bryan used the geography of the city to explain the roots of the conflict and the related economic history of the City. Each stop offered them a poignant snapshot of the conflict, as seen here with a mural of the Freedom Corner, with fragments of memory frozen in time through murals painted on the walls of houses and shops.

TMIN participants were hosted by Hollywell Trust. Gerard Deane, the Executive Director of Holywell Trust, explained the work of the organisation in bringing communities together in the City. Holywell Trust, founded in 1988, aims to promote better relationships and social transformation in Derry-Londonderry and beyond by fostering partnership, collaboration, policy development and cross-community dialogue. Deane also explained some of the legacies of the conflict and how the peace process has failed to address ongoing social division and in impoverishment in parts of the city.