Day 55 - Belfast: Murals Tour

Murals in Northern Ireland (NI) have become symbols of NI, depicting the region’s past and present political and religious division. Belfast and Derry contain arguably the most famous political murals in Europe. It is believed that almost 2,000 murals have been documented since the 1970s.

We were once again on the road with the fabulous Lorraine for this tour.

Belfast is over 400 years old and was founded by Sir Arthur Chichester. The Irish were pushed off the land and the Scots and English took over, as long as they were Protestants. The French came later and helped Belfast grow into Linenopolis, the largest producer of linens in the world at that time.

During the famine more than 1 million Irish people died and another 1.5 million emigrated to Canada and America.

In Belfast, there are barriers called “peace lines” or walls crossing the city keeping neighboring Protestant and Catholics apart. Approximately one third of these walls have been erected since the parliamentary ceasefire of the mid-1990s that led to the Good Friday Agreements - a political settlement. I cannot get into the history of Belfast because frankly, I didn’t live it so it is very difficult to keep it straight, and it seems like even though there is a ceasefire, there is still a lot of simmering hostility.

Lorraine told us that parliament and other powers that be try to only make radical changes in the winter to avoid the inevitable protests. According to Lorraine, “the two things that make a good riot are sunshine and alcohol.”

The first wall of murals we saw is the International Peace Wall. Each mural on the wall tells a different story. Remember my Noah, is about a 14 year old Catholic boy who was murdered in 2020 and found in a storm drain. No one has been held accountable for his death. The Springhill Westrock Massacre occurred when five Catholic residents were murdered by the British Army on July 9, 1972. Three of the victims were teenagers, one was a priest, and the other was a non-combatant. No one has been held accountable for this crime. And, this particular massacre happened, literally, right outside Lorraine’s house. She was a child then, but still remembers the whole neighborhood being evacuated to County Cork for their safety.

Bobby Sands, a former member of Parliament of the UK, was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, died of a 66 day hunger strike in 1981. He was elected to Parliament while in prison (he received more votes than Margaret Thatcher did in her election.) Again, there is so much information on Bobby Sands and the IRA that I do not want to misrepresent it here. Apparently, this is the most photographed mural in the world.

Then we went through the Peace Gates, which are still locked every night. The gates separate the Catholics and Protestants. As I said above, the Troubles may be over, but it doesn’t seem like they are finished.

The Peace Wall is over 8 kilometers long. We not only went to the Peace Wall, we signed it! How cool is that?

There are many, many more murals in Belfast and many more stories. I wish I could could explain it better but it is such a deep seated history, I don’t want to mess it up.