The site of the Long Kesh prison will be used to create “a shrine to peace”, Sinn Fein’s deputy First Minister has said, following a decision to go ahead with the project.

An estimated 100 million pounds is to be invested in the redevelopment of the site which housed the H-block cells and the hospital where republican hunger strikers like Bobby Sands died.

A political football for over 15 years, a proposal for the construction of a sports stadium at the site as part of the development was shelved several years ago. But plans again gathered momentum in early 2012 when European officials confirmed EU funding for the scheme.