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The article examines the role of the former Long Kesh/Maze prison as one of the key heritage sites of the Northern Ireland conflict. It is grounded within the context of the political processes which have followed the implementation of the Belfast Peace Agreement in 1998. A brief history of the site and the salient points in its timeline precedes a discussion of the recommendations of the Maze Consultation Panel which reported in 2005. Among its principal proposals was the reconstruction of part of the Maze site as an International Centre for Conflict Transformation. The article examines the responses of various stakeholders to this idea but uses Sinn Féin's favoured analogies of Robben Island and, particularly, Auschwitz-Birkenau to conclude that only republicanism has a clearly defined sense of the heritage value of the Maze and an understanding as to how the site might be appropriated and exploited as an iconic place for remembering, contestation and resistance.

Northern Ireland is currently emerging from three decades of conflict. Belfast, its largest city, experienced some of the worst levels of violence. During these 'Troubles' it became a highly segregated city in which its citizens understandings of the urban fabric were mediated through their ethno-religious backgrounds. Yet as the region moves into a post-conflict situation, Belfast has been undergoing rapid physical change. One result of this has been an effort to remove evidence of the conflict from the 'new' city centre, despite more than 70 conflict-related deaths having occurred there. The article uses the example of Belfast city centre to explore: (1) how 'normalization' strategies employed after conflict seek to reshape cognitive understandings of violent spaces through reconstruction; and (2) how individual memory retains the potential to disrupt these efforts. We argue that the highly regimented spatial patterns of Troubles commemoration in Belfast may influence how the city deals with the challenges of its violent past.

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