Timeline: Maze prison site development
- Published
The Maze prison held some of NI's most notorious killers from 1971 to 2000
A bitter political row over a planned peace centre at the former site of the Maze prison has led to the withdrawal of 拢18m in EU funding for the controversial project. 91热爆 News looks back at the tangled tale of the Maze.
1971 - The government begins to house paramilitary prisoners at HMP Maze, a purpose-built jail constructed on the disused Long Kesh RAF base, south-west of Belfast. Over the next 29 years, it held some of the most notorious paramilitary killers in Northern Ireland.
1981 - Ten republican inmates, including Bobby Sands, die during an IRA hunger strike over a dispute about political prisoner status.
1983 - Thirty-eight republican prisoners break out of the Maze in the biggest prison escape in British history. Several prison officers are stabbed and one later dies from a heart attack.
1997 - Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright is shot dead inside the Maze by republican prisoners
1998 - The phased begins at the Maze on 11 September, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
2000 - More than 1,000 prisoner officers leave their jobs in preparation for the closure of the Maze as a working jail on 30 September. The last four inmates are transferred to another jail.
2005 - Direct rule minister Ian Pearson approves a plan to build a new on the 360-acre former prison site, saying it is the only viable location for the project.
2006 - begins to transform 360-acre former jail site into a proposed 42,000 seat multi-sports arena and "centre for conflict transformation". It is envisaged that soccer, rugby and Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) sports will be played at the new development.
2009 - Sports Minister for a multi-sports stadium which had divided political and sporting opinion, opting instead to explore alternatives with the soccer, rugby and GAA authorities.
2010 - NI first and deputy first ministers, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, announce an agreement has been reached on building a peace and conflict resolution facility at the Maze site. It will also host the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society's annual show
2012 - (2 February) European funding of 拢18m is approved for building the contentious conflict resolution centre, as part of a 拢300m redevelopment of the former prison estate.
2012 - (24 August) - It is revealed that Daniel Libeskind, one of the world's leading architects, is to join the design team for the planned peace centre.
2013 (18 April) - Planning permission for the peace centre on the site of the former prison is granted.
2013 - (13 June) - The Orange Order calls on unionist politicians to halt the peace centre plan, objecting to its location on the former prison site.
2013 - (15 August) Peter Robinson calls a halt to the peace centre plan. In a letter to DUP members, he said it would be wrong to proceed without a consensus about how it will operate.
2013 - (4 October) A European Union funding programme withdraws its offer of 拢18m in financial support for the Maze peace centre, after talks with the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister.