Dusk was falling, offices were emptying as workers headed home on a damp and drizzly night, but laughter sounded from an interface area in the west of the city - as young people dreamt about a Belfast without walls.

Sixteen year old Rachel says the ‘peace walls’ have always been part of her life: “You grow up with Catholics on one side, Protestants on the other but if we were all together we’d find that we’re really all same.  We’re not bad people, it’s just history which makes us look bad.”

While for 15 year old Sarah it’s hard to imagine life without the walls: “It’s kinda normal for them to be there.  But I think it would be better to have them down.  I’d like to see life without them.”

It’s November 9th 2009 and around 60 young people from flashpoint areas areas across the city gathered at the gates of the peaceline on Lanark Way to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Organised by Youthlink the event is part of an ‘Up against the wall’ initiative, aimed at using the iconic images from Berlin to focus minds on solving interface conflict here.

Youthlink’s community relations manager John Peacock is longing for breakthrough in Belfast: “Personally we all want the walls to come down. The barriers in people’s minds are the bigger issue rather than the physical issue.

“The ultimate aim of the group is to get young people involved and give them a voice on the issue, it is about engaging them in conversation about the future,” he said.

The young people who turned out played basketball with the Peace Players, who met former US President George Bush in Belfast in 2008, and took part in a drumming workshop.

The group then headed to the City Hall to meet with Belfast’s Lord Mayor Naomi Long and share their dreams of a city where interfaces could become a concept studied in history classrooms, rather than an everyday reality.