**This episode includes two separate interviews.**

Hilary Lawrey knows what it means to live with invisible boundaries. Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, she experienced a world where fear quietly shaped everyday life—determining where people went, whom they met, and how communities remained separated. Though she never carried bitterness, the divisions around her became part of the landscape of her life.

After spending fifteen years caring for her husband before his death, Hilary faced a different kind of isolation. Grief had narrowed her world, and the thought of walking into a shared space where Protestants and Catholics gathered together felt overwhelming. Yet she chose courage over fear.

That single decision changed her life.

Today, Black Mountain Shared Space has become a second home. Surrounded by friends from across the community, Hilary has rediscovered laughter, purpose, and the confidence to embrace new experiences—including traveling with women she had only recently met. She believes peace is built not by pretending differences don't exist, but by making room for one another while remaining true to who we are.

Looking at her grandchildren, Hilary sees a future she never imagined as a child: one where friendships cross old divides and young people are free to go wherever life leads them. Her journey is a reminder that reconciliation is often less about changing someone else's mind than finding the courage to step through a door that once seemed impossible to open.

Mark Fenton is a community leader and founding member of Black Mountain Shared Space in Belfast, where he has spent nearly two decades helping build relationships across one of Northern Ireland's most deeply divided interfaces. Raised in the area during the Troubles, Mark became involved in interface violence as a child and later in loyalist paramilitary organizations, experiences that shaped his understanding of the conflict and the cost it imposed on local communities.

A strong supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, Mark became involved in community peacebuilding to help ensure that future generations would not have to experience the violence and division he had known. Working alongside former members of the republican community, he has helped build trust, respond to community tensions, and create opportunities for people from both traditions to meet in a safe and welcoming environment.

Mark is also a single father who raised two daughters after the death of his wife. He credits his work in peacebuilding with helping create a different future for his family, one in which his daughters—and now his grandchildren—can form friendships across community lines that would have been nearly impossible during his own childhood. Today, he remains committed to building safer, stronger communities by encouraging people to step beyond fear and give one another a chance.

Credits:

Photos and text, John Noltner
Field production, summer interns Kate West, Sawyer Garrison, and Kaitlin Imai
Audio Engineering, Razik Saifullah

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