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Little House on the Peace Line

Living and working as a pacifist on Belfast's Murder Mile

Tony Macaulay

In 1985 Tony Macaulay, a Protestant from the top of the Shankill Road, was appointed assistant director of the 174 Trust. There was one condition – Tony had to move to live on the Catholic side of the peace line.

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‘In 1985, I went to live on the other side of the peace line. Everyone said my head was cut. It was the summer of Live Aid and Bob Geldof pledged to save Africa from hunger. My ambitions were more modest. I wanted to stop the violence between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast.’

Driven by the conviction that things can change and that he can change them, Tony Macaulay takes up a job running a youth club in the staunchly nationalist New Lodge, an area known as Murder Mile, with youth unemployment at 90 per cent.

Challenge enough you might think, but it’s also a requirement of the job that Tony, a Protestant from the Shankill Road, and his wife Lesley live in the local community.

As the realities of life in a working-class republican community start to hit home, Tony’s idealism and faith are pushed to the limit. Inspiring, heart-breaking, and often laugh-out-loud funny, this is the story of how one couple kept the faith in a little house on the peace line.