While the berlin wall came down after 28 years, belfast's continue to stand, and there is little likelihood, at present, of them being demolished.

There are over 20 'Peace Lines' in Belfast, which form 'the belfast wall'. Many were built as temporary structures in the early 1970s to separate Catholic and Protestant areas at the height of intercommunal violence. Welcomed by most residents then, they are still seen by residents as fulfilling an important function in keeping apart 'warring factions'. Some of the walls are over a kilometre long and 20 feet high. The more modern ones, euphemistically known as 'Environmental Barriers', have been made less obtrusive with fancy brickwork, or railings and sensitive planting of trees and shrubs, but they divide communities in Belfast just the same as the corrugated iron and barbed wire barricades did.

Each of the areas separated by the peace lines are almost identical, at least to the outsider's eye. Each is often characterised by poverty and unemployment. Housing tends to be poor, although some attempts have been made to improve this. The urban fabric is often damaged with vandalism and what investment is made in its improvement seems insufficient. There is often a shortage of social provision.