Interface area

Interface area is the name given in Northern Ireland to areas where segregated nationalist and unionist residential areas meet. They have been defined as "the intersection of segregated and polarised working class residential zones, in areas with a strong link between territory and ethno-political identity".

Interface areas are sometimes characterised by so-called peace lines, but this is not always the case and so people not local to the area are not always aware of the existence of interface areas. They are sometimes the sites of sectarian violence, when they have become known as "flashpoints". One of the most famous interface areas is Holy Cross in the Ardoyne area of Belfast, which was the site of significant disputes in 2001 and 2002.

North Belfast is home to a number of interface areas. Amongst the most notorious is that between the lower Antrim Road and the lower Shore Road which was seen as such a flashpoint that in 1994 a fence was added to Alexandra Park, a public amenity straddling both areas, dividing the park between the two communities. The fence remains in place although a gate was added in 2011 permitting limited access from one side to the other.

A major flashpoint also exists at Duncairn Gardens between the Irish republican New Lodge area of the Antrim Road and the neighbouring Ulster loyalist Tiger's Bay area. Clashes here date back to at least the early 1970s when local "defence associations" formed by loyalists became part of the wider Ulster Defence Association. Trouble in the area has been a regular feature with petrol bombs thrown in 2000 and 2001 after local UDA Brigadier Jimbo Simpson claimed that republican housing was starting to encroach into Tiger's Bay. The Limestone Road, which runs parallel to Duncairn Gardens, also provides a dividing line, with the Parkside and Newington areas being largely Irish nationalist and the Tiger's Bay and Halliday's Road area mainly unionist (although a small section of Halliday's Road forms the edge of the New Lodge area and is divided from the rest of the road as a result). There have also been divisions around the Antrim Road between the Protestant Westland Road and the Catholic areas of the Cavehill Road known as "Little America", although there has been more co-operation between community groups aimed at decreasing tensions.

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