Owen Polley: The ​Maze prison buildings are a reminder of terrorism and should be ground into the dirt

Among the vast majority of Northern Ireland football supporters, though, there was steadfast opposition to putting an unsuitable arena with poor transport links in the middle of the countryside. Ulster Rugby enthusiasts were less categorical, but the intention was never to give up their home at Ravenhill. The Ulster Branch of the IRFU only committed to playing some European ties there.

If the stadium was contentious, the idea of creating a museum or ‘interpretative centre’ at the old prison was incendiary.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds were wasted on preserving buildings like an H-Block and the old hospital, after they were closed to prisoners in 2000. These structures were even granted listed status, to prevent them from being destroyed.

While there were some suggestions that those facilities had architectural value, most people knew very well that they were being protected only because of their place in republican mythology. In particular, they had a central role in the story of the hunger strikes and they formed the backdrop for other terrorist exploits, like the mass prison break of 1983.

It was, of course, Sinn Fein that demanded that this site be preserved most vociferously. And one of the party’s goals was to see some kind of museum there, that would entrench the jail as a important part of our cultural heritage, rather than a mark of shame from a tragic period in our history,

Unionists believed, and they were right, that any visitor centre would effectively become a shrine to terrorism. For the most part, they resisted the plans as strenuously as possible.

But the DUP, in particular, on occasions had a rather ambivalent attitude.

Some of its representatives in Lagan Valley saw the Maze’s redevelopment as an opportunity to secure investment for the constituency. There were suggestions that the party would do a bargain, claiming credit for bringing jobs, houses and retail units to Lisburn, while Sinn Fein got its museum.

Thank goodness, Peter Robinson eventually stopped plans for a ‘peace centre’, or ‘conflict resolution’ hub, or whatever euphemism was being used to justify the project at the time. In response, and in a fit of spite, Martin McGuinness said that Sinn Fein would not sanction any redevelopment that did not include memorialising the IRA.

From the unionist perspective, as an editorial in this paper 10 days ago (August 16, click here to read it) remembered, the former DUP deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, summed it up best when he said, “Whatever spin is deployed, the preservation of the H blocks… would become a shrine to terror.”

His argument was unanswerable and that should have been that.

Unfortunately, the idea that the Maze should be turned into a visitor attraction seems to have returned to the political agenda. The News Letter recently reported that National Museums Northern Ireland is involved in discussing ‘interpretation of and access to’ prison buildings.

And the suspicion that parts of the DUP may be ambivalent about this threat is making a comeback too. The party’s minister of education and Lagan Valley MLA, Paul Givan, said that there was a ‘story to be told’ about prison guards at the jail and he compared the site to the former Crumlin Road prison, which is now a tourist attraction. That jail, he argued, did not become a terror shrine, despite being opened to the public.

It is easy to see the attraction of that way of thinking, with money scarce and the chance of unlocking the site’s potential seemingly in the gift of republicans. The theory is that a museum could be balanced; that it could tell the stories of guards as well as inmates.

It is an attitude, though, that ignores what has happened with legacy over the past ten years, as an already serious problem has deteriorated.

The challenge with telling the story of the Troubles at the Maze lies not only in finding balance - it’s about achieving accuracy. Even if a facility did give space to prison officers’ stories, you could be sure that it would not present the inmates simply as terrorists, whose campaign was unjustified, unnecessary and wrong.

It would perpetuate the myth that the state, rather than paramilitaries, were the main perpetrators of the conflict. That case would be portrayed as one of several possible viewpoints, even if it wasn’t endorsed directly.

And the Maze would, without doubt, become a magnet for people who wanted to celebrate terrorists as freedom fighters or heroes.

Republicans have always wanted to make the Maze their Robben Island. The former jail in South Africa housed ANC prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, and it is now a major draw for tourists, who see it as a symbol of struggle against injustice.

No such story should be allowed to be constructed around the Maze. It is a reminder of a shameful period, when a violent minority used terrorism to try to impose its will on the majority. Whatever the eventual fate of the site, the prison buildings should be knocked down and ploughed into the dirt.