Keeping the Lines Open Exhibition: The Story of the Peace Trains

The Peace Train movement hired and ran seven ‘Peace Trains’ between Dublin and Belfast between 1989 and 1995 to protest against paramilitary bombings and repeated attacks on the Belfast-Dublin Enterprise railway line. Cross-community, cross-border and cross-party in an era of bitter division, the ‘Peace Trains’ caught the public imagination, with thousands of participants, including many working-class women from Belfast and Dublin, rubbing shoulders with trade unionists, church leaders, writers and politicians, including Sam McAughtry and Paddy Devlin. Using posters, photographs, correspondence,  and a wide range of archive materials from The Linen Hall collections, Keeping the Lines Open tells the powerful story of this fascinating movement and its campaign for peace.

A special panel discussion, bringing together some of the individuals involved in the Peace Train Organisation as well as civil society peace activists and political representatives will be held on 13 November at 1 pm.