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PA Archive/Press Association Images

The (actual) walls dividing the North's Catholics and Protestants are coming down

And will be gone by 2023.

“PEACE LINES” – THE 16-foot walls and fences dividing the Catholic and Protestant communities in the North will be gone by 2023.

Sinn Féin Junior Minister Megan Fearon reiterated the Northern Executive’s commitment to removing the barriers within the next seven years today.

Fearon as told a north Belfast festival that removing the walls opened doors.

“By removing a peace wall we open a door to a new shared space and I believe we should be ambitious in our efforts.

“Reconciliation has been hampered by physical divisions so to help build a truly shared, united and reconciled community, we need to put in place the conditions and circumstances to remove these structures.”

North Belfast has 16 of the lines, which comprise walls, fences and gates. In total in the North, there are around 50 still in operation.

They cut through housing developments and are most prevalent in areas of high sectarian tensions, such as the hearts of Belfast and Derry.

Fearon said that tearing down the walls would take courage.

Britain Northern Ireland G8 Belfast Walls AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

“It takes courage to engage on such difficult issues, but the courage that many in the community have shown, and continue to show on a daily basis, can, and will change our society for the better.

“Progress is being made.”

The Peace Walls Programme was started in 2012 and continues to remove the barriers.

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    Mute Dave Harris
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    Sep 30th 2016, 9:04 AM

    What’s that rushing up towards me, said Rosetta. I shall call it “rocks” it thought happily – I wonder if it will be my friend?

    108
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    Mute Peadar Ó Gréacháin
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    Sep 30th 2016, 10:59 AM

    Who is flying it, Mmmmm……it would be too much to hope for, by the way is leaders questions on this morning.

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    Mute George Brown
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:44 PM

    They better be friends. They’ll probably be together for billions of years.

    19
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    Mute The Girl
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    Sep 30th 2016, 8:36 AM

    Per second? Wow! That’s fast..

    53
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    Mute Kieran OKeeffe
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    Sep 30th 2016, 11:32 AM

    @The Girl:
    Approx. 30,000 mph

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    Mute Niall Martin
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    Sep 30th 2016, 12:49 PM

    Sure the Earth is going at 30km per second, and rotating at 1,000mph at the equator.

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    Mute Paraic McDonagh
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    Sep 30th 2016, 12:55 PM

    True, the earth orbits the sun at about 108,000 km/hr. And all without spilling your tea. ☺

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    Mute Joseph O'Loughlin
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:20 PM

    Has to be 14km per hour, the speed of a gentle amble

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    Mute Elma Phudd
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:31 PM

    Don’t forget that the Milky Way itself is driving along at 1,300,000 mph. It’s all very interesting really!

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    Mute Mark Trudgeon
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:39 PM

    @Elma Phudd: so in other words if I walk forwards I am travelling at 1.3m mph + 108k mph + 1000 mph (if at the equator) + whatever speed I am doing :-). Like a fly in a car (doing 90) flies from the back to the front inside the cabin. Is he doing the 90+fly speed or jsut fly speed :-)

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    Mute Elma Phudd
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:51 PM

    It depends which direction you are walking in ;)

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    Mute Brendan Hughes
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    Sep 30th 2016, 2:09 PM

    You only don’t spill your tea because the brakes have been sabotaged by the illuminati to stop anyone getting off and away from the crazyness.

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    Mute Paraic McDonagh
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    Sep 30th 2016, 4:50 PM

    Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, And things seem hard or tough, And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft, And you feel that you’ve had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough, Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving And revolving at 900 miles an hour. It’s orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it’s reckoned, The sun that is the source of all our power. Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see, Are moving at a million miles a day, In the outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way. Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars; It’s a hundred thousand light-years side to side; It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick, But out by us it’s just three thousand light-years wide. We’re thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point, We go ’round every two hundred million years; And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe.

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    Mute Em Ni Mhurchu
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    Sep 30th 2016, 12:57 PM

    A truly incredible and inspirational program from start to finish. What they’ve achieved is astonishing!

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    Mute john culhane
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    Sep 30th 2016, 8:44 AM

    Everything that lives is born to die…….even spacecraft!

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    Mute David Mac Shite
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    Sep 30th 2016, 8:44 AM

    Lets hope Rosetta’s impact doesn’t nudge the comet off its trajectory and send it spiraling towards earth.

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    Mute liam whelan
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    Sep 30th 2016, 9:09 AM

    It’s going the wrong direction and there’s not going to be much force from the landing! The momentum of the comet probably won’t be affected by the satellite crashing into it.

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    Mute Trisec Training
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    Sep 30th 2016, 9:17 AM

    bags summa dat metal dere boss

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    Mute Daithí
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    Sep 30th 2016, 3:06 PM

    Were any of the scientists wearing sexist clothing during the announcement? Because that’s what really matters here.

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    Mute Paul Culligan
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:01 PM

    All that technology and it took them ages to find Osama Bin Laden.

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    Mute OU812
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:04 PM

    Why crash it though? Why not just let it drift off into the abyss?

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    Mute Nick Caffrey
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:20 PM

    Litter bug!

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    Mute Derek Walsh
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:25 PM

    @OU812: They hope to obtain useful data from the crash landing. They’d get none if they let it drift.

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Sep 30th 2016, 1:41 PM

    And it was on its last legs….

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Sep 30th 2016, 2:18 PM

    This way they know where it is: drifting it’d be a hazard to the next one up?

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    Mute Winston Smith
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    Sep 30th 2016, 10:07 PM

    Fantastic and another European victory in the friendly space race between the USA and Europe/Russia…hopefully much more can be invested in Space exploration.

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    Mute Charles Coughlan
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    Sep 30th 2016, 3:29 PM

    Rosette are you better, are you well well well

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    Mute Fintan Oflaois
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    Sep 30th 2016, 8:31 PM

    We should all be glad that we managed to land on a comet before one landed on us.

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