Murals after “the Troubles”: Rebuilding the Image of Northern Ireland (1994- 2012)

Abstract

Although the history of mural painting in Northern Ireland started long before the conflict erupted in the late 1960s, this iconic genre became deeply associated with the “Troubles”. In the 1980s, Republicans adopted mural painting as an effective tool for political communication and a visual call to arms, while Loyalist murals experienced a rebirth. Besides a few other themes, depictions of armed members of paramilitary organisations started to cover the walls of both Catholic and Protestant areas of Belfast and Derry, mirroring the levels of unrest in the province. After the ceasefires and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, sectarian violence gradually receded from Northern Ireland; political murals, however, did not suddenly vanish. Since the mid-1990s, there have been important changes in the themes depicted in murals, but also many disturbing elements of continuity, pointing to the persistence of a war culture. As individuals, associations and state agencies recognised the negative impact which paramilitary murals could have on business, tourism and, crucially, the future of the peace process, calls were made for their removal. This paper traces the evolutions in the iconography and perceptions of mural paintings in Northern Ireland from the initial ceasefires in 1994 to the early 2010s, focusing on the successive attempts by individuals, organisations and state agencies to intervene in Northern Ireland’s muralscape as a way to rebuild a more positive image of the province. It aims to assess the extent to which these initiatives have led murals away from a highly divisive iconography in favour of a broader, more inclusive one.