Belfast Murals Paintings are part of the Island history isn't It?

Mural painting has been a feature of unionist popular culture since the early years of this century when images of King William III and other Orange symbols began to adorn the gable walls of the working-class areas of Belfast. They appeared as part of an assertion of the Protestant people's sense of British identity during an extended period of political crisis. In the later stages of the Home Rule campaign and, following partition in 1921, in the period of consolidation of the Northern Irish state, mural paintings were used to complement and extend the existing forms of Orange displays.

From the early years of the nineteenth century elaborate displays of flags, flowers and bunting were hung from houses and across streets for the July commemorations of the Battle of the Boyne. Each year wooden, metal or floral arches were installed in the centres of many towns and villages and in staunchly Protestant residential areas. These displays were highly formalised and showed little variation in their symbolic content from year to year or from place to place (Jarman 1997). Each area was content to affirm its loyalty to the memory of King William III, and celebrate the victory at the Boyne. Such displays served to mark out those towns, villages and streets which were loyal and Protestant.

These displays on the Twelfth of July marked the beginnings of a visible sectarianisation of place. But they were short-lived. Most lasted for no more than a few days and then the streets and buildings returned to their everyday appearance with no overt demonstration of collective identity. However the introduction of mural paintings in working-class areas of Belfast changed all this, making these hitherto temporary and seasonal affirmations of loyalty much more permanent. Streets could now declare their faith throughout the year. They were no longer simply rows of houses, but terraces of Protestant houses. The permanent displays visually confirmed a status above and beyond mere function. While this may have been a relatively minor step in areas which were already recognised as staunchly Protestant, and much of working-class Belfast was highly segregated, such displays helped to make explicit the fact of residential segregation.

Murals helped to transform 'areas where Protestants lived' into 'Protestant areas'. By implication this should also mean that some areas were accepted as 'Catholic areas'. Mural painting was soon recognised as an established feature of Protestant popular culture, and after partition in 1921, helped to define the political and cultural parameters of the Northern Ireland state. New murals, arches and other displays were ritually unveiled by politicians each July in Protestant areas across the north, but the law and the police were utilised to ensure that the nationalist population did not develop a similar tradition within a British Northern Ireland. Although an area could be acknowledged as inhabited by Catholics, it could not easily or readily be regarded as a 'Catholic area' since all Catholics were regarded as Irish nationalists and therefore a threat to the status of Northern Ireland. Gerrymandering ensured that Unionist politicians controlled some areas with a Catholic majority and no area could be regarded as beyond the actual, or symbolic, remit of the Orange state. Loyalist parades were allowed to pass through Catholic areas but attempts by nationalists to parade or erect visual displays were often highly restricted or banned outright. Even the temporary erection of the Irish tricolour was seen as a challenge and an affront, and more permanent displays were almost unknown (but see Rolston 1991, 72).

The Free Derry mural was an early example of the transformation of public space by nationalists through the installation of political imagery, but for a time it was an isolated example. It was not until the early 1980s that murals became a prominent form of street display in nationalist areas and the brush joined the armalite and the ballot box as a facet of political strategy. Republican strategy changed after the hunger strikes: the military campaign continued, but at the same time a more open political movement began, culminating in the success of Sinn Féin at the polls. This movement tried to emphasise the distinctive cultural base of nationalism, which was deemed to provide the secure foundations for the political movement. Numerous murals and political slogans appeared across nationalist Belfast, kerbstones and lamp-posts were painted, streets were renamed in Irish, and the tricolour flew freely to assert a permanent and visible, political and cultural dominance over the area. This development was exemplified by the transformation of the republican commemorations to mark the introduction of internment each August. During the 1980s this changed from a day of political speeches and rioting to a week-long celebration of Irish culture. Mural painting was encouraged as part of the new West Belfast Festival. Competitions to judge the best painting were held in the early years, while more recently paintings have been especially commissioned for the Festival. The images were used as a means of conveying political ideas, for displaying historical heroes and role models, and extending the parameters of the movement. As with the emergence of unionist murals earlier in the century, the paintings were a prominent part of a wider transformation of nationalist areas.

junder wrote: »

The mural tradition was actully started of in unionist areas, the oldest which was a king Billy was first painted in my area in 1907, sadly that painting has been lost now

The first loyalist mural was painted on the Beersbridge Road in Belfast in 1908. For most of the rest of the twentieth century loyalist murals were painted each July as part of the annual ritual celebrations of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, when King William III (‘King Billy’) defeated King James I in a struggle over the English crown. Consequently, the main image in the murals was of King Billy on his white horse crossing the River Boyne. By the 1970s and 1980s this image became much less frequent.