Stadium, conflict centre to rise from ashes of notorious N. Irish prison

A young boy runs near the gates outside of Windsor Park stadium in Belfast in December 2005. Work has started to transform the site of the former Maze prison for paramilitaries into a 42,000-capacity national stadium for Northern Ireland and an international centre for conflict transformation.

Work has started to transform the site of the former Maze prison for paramilitaries into a 42,000-capacity national stadium for Northern Ireland and an international centre for conflict transformation.

The H-shaped prison blocks, where hundreds of paramilitaries from the Catholic Irish Republican Army (IRA) and armed Protestant groups were detained in separate wings, are etched in the memory of many in Northern Ireland.

The last prisoners were released in 2000 as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended 35 years of violence in the province.

Demolition work is expected to take a year, though one H-block is to be retained.

H6, which contained the prison hospital, will be turned into the conflict transformation centre, focussing on what an official release called "turning swords into ploughshares."

It was here that Bobby Sands, the leader of IRA prisoners in the Maze, died on hunger strike in 1981. Nine other Republicans also died in a vain attempt to force the British government into giving them political prisoner status.

It is envisaged that football, rugby union and Irish sports such as Gaelic football and hurling will be played at the new stadium.

The 20,332-capacity Windsor Park in Belfast is currently used for Northern Ireland's international football matches.

"Clearing the site will be part of the mission to transform it into a symbol of economic and social regeneration, renewal and growth," said David Hanson, a minister from Britain's Northern Ireland Office on Monday.