Center for Irish Studies

"I'm amazed at the outstanding quality of this artwork"—John Hume (Northern Irish politician; winner, 1998 Nobel Peace Prize)

Critical Inquiry | Creative Spirit | Global Perspective

"The work of the Bogside Artists is remarkable...a vibrant response to events still vivid in the psyche of the community"—Brian Friel (World-renowned playwright; co-founder, Field Day Theater Company)

From Protest to Peace is an extraordinary exhibit! At its core are eleven state-of-the-art reproductions on fabric of the giant—and highly acclaimed—political murals painted, since 1993, by the Bogside Artists of Northern Ireland. For canvases, these three gifted friends—Kevin Hasson and brothers Tom and William Kelly—use the sides of buildings along Rossville Street in their native Bogside. The Bogside is a predominantly Catholic and working-class district of Derry (or Londonderry), one of the largest cities in Northern Ireland. Specifically, the Bogside lies just west of Derry's superbly preserved walls, built in the early seventeenth century by English and Scottish colonists. • Attracting international media, the Bogside played a huge role in Northern Ireland's "Troubles": the thirty or so years of sectarian violence that began in the late 1960s. Especially infamous events there were the Battle of the Bogside (12-14 August 1969) and Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972), both of which the Bogside Murals record. • Across Northern Ireland, the Troubles generated hundreds of outdoor political murals—from both the Nationalist (Republican) and Unionist (Loyalist) communities. Many endure to the present, thanks to constant maintenance. Some murals portray mythic Irish characters (like Cuchulainn); others offer historical figures (like King William III, who, in 1690, defeated James II, Britain's last Catholic monarch). • Although this exhibit privileges the Bogside Artists, it also, in a balanced fashion, explains and analyzes the greater history of Northern Irish murals. Very complex issues of religious, national, ethnic, and cultural identity inform the politics in Northern Ireland, sometimes called Ulster.

CIVIL RIGHTS MURAL (2004)

PEACE MURAL (2004)

Each year, the eleven Bogside murals attract thousands of tourists and scholars. Currently, a twelfth mural is in production. It depicts former US Senator George Mitchell and other key participants in the peace process that culminated in the Anglo-Irish Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although not an absolute solution to the centuries-old conflict in the the land of the Giant's Causeway and the Titanic shipyard, the Agreement has brought a large measure of peace. Very remarkably, under structures established by the Agreement, the Irish Republican Army repudiated violence and decommissioned its arms in 2005. While mainstream Northern Irish politics remain highly polarized, the dominant players have been sharing power since spring 2007. The Democratic Unionist Party wants Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, while Sinn Féin campaigns for a united Ireland. Northern Ireland's difficult journey to peace and reconciliation is being studied by officials charged with building democratic institutions in Iraq. • The "Troubles" began in Derry in 1968, when the Protestant authorities attempted to curtail or ban Catholic civil rights marches that emulated the pacifist example of Martin Luther King Jr. Tensions mounted between the Royal Ulster Constabulary (the main police force) and socially marginalized Catholics, who constituted around three-quarters of the city's population. Soon enough, violence became widespread, and the British army was deployed: Operation Banner lasted from 1969 to 31 July 2007. • The Bogside Artists' Peace Mural (pictured on the left) presents symbols of faith and hope in white outline (like at a crime scene) against red and green—respectively, colors associated with Britain and Ireland. The blue suggests St. Patrick's blue. The dove and oak leaf allude to how, in the sixth century, St. Colmcille ("the dove of the church") founded a monastery in a sacred oak grove (Doire or Derry) on the site of the present city.