Political Murals of Falls Road
Belfast

Some of the murals on the Republican side of town, Falls Road

Our black taxi tour started with a stop in front of a series of murals painted along the outside of a factory wall. The last still-functional linen factory on this stretch, it still operates with two locked gates -- one is locked by those on the Loyalist side of the city, the other by those on the Republican side.

The murals here, which seem to be painted over and updated regularly, reflect some political sentiment in the city at the time. Looking at the picture at the top, the left-most mural was apparently finished just that afternoon. The one in the middle is dedicated to Fredrick Douglass and his time in Ireland. The right-most mural is the first painted jointly by people from the Loyalist and Republican sides of the city. It's a recreation of Guernica.

Dubya drinks oil as bubbles of money come out his ears.

Immediately across the street stood the unassuming apartment buildings shown below. Until very recently, British troops occupied the top floor of this building. A residence on the Republican side of town, the building was home to Catholic families on the lower floors. Knowing the IRA would never blow up the Catholic homes, the British were able to garrison there for years.

Home to Catholic families and British troops.

Click here to see more political murals, as well as other pics of Belfast.


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