Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

You don’t have to know much about Northern Ireland to know that we have murals … lots of murals … I’ve written before about how they act as social barometers, with changing themes and emphases reflecting wider concerns within varies communities. While even a basic Google image search will return plenty of images of Northern Ireland’s murals, I recently noticed that there are relatively few images out there of murals during construction. It’s easy to see why so few such images exist – it’s a relatively short process (a matter of days) in relation to the amount of time they’re visible for (frequently several years). There’s also the issue that – especially for the more sectarian examples - many artists may be reluctant to be filmed or photographed. In June of last year, in the run up to the Euro 2016 soccer competition in France, a gable wall at the junction of Carnforth Street and the Albertbridge Road in East Belfast was chosen to receive a tribute to the Northern Ireland soccer...

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the secure button at the right. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. To help keep the site in operation, please use the amazon search portal at the right - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue **] Even if you’ve never been to Northern Ireland , you probably know about our murals. Certainly, no visit to Belfast appears to be complete without a trip on one of the number of ‘troubles tours’ busses to some of the less than salubrious quarters of the city in search of this form of painted gable sectarianism. Much has been written about their origins, meaning, symbolism, and all that and, should the mood take you, you can read about it in the Wiki article: here . The Wiki article gives some examples of the genre, as does the rather good Belfast Murals site: here . However you look at it, the murals break down into two main groups:...