the battle of the Falls refers to a british Army curfew in 1970, imposed to seach the Falls area for IRA weapons
another Bobby Sands poem on Falls Road
Falls Road: the Memorial Garden honors Republican casualties
the start of the International Wall with St Peter's Cathedral in the background
Falls Road: they are still here
a call for peace
the first mural on the Loyalist side calls for peace
Even today these gates stil close every night
a lineup of international bigshots
Bobby Sands was an activist but also a poet
A must-see in Belfast are the
murals, a visual expression of the religious-political divide that still runs
deep through the city's working class communities.
Although some murals are not politically motivated, most are either supportive
of the protestant
Loyalists who feel British, or the catholic
Republicans, who feel Irish.
Many murals refer to the violent times of
The Troubles and glorify the victims and combattants on their side of the divide.
There are loyalist clusters on the east
bank of the Lagan and on the republican
Falls Road and loyalist
Shankill Road.
These two roads were at the front of the
violence and are now separated by high walls and spiky iron gates that even today still close at night.
These divides are
called
peace walls, the section in Northcumberland Street contains many murals depicting several international struggles and is called
the International Wall.
We visited some
of Belfast's murals in June 2018.
a mural along Newtownards Rd honors Ulster soldiers that fought in WWI
this Loyalist mural at Newtownards Rd says it all
the famous Bobby Sands mural at Falls Road honors the Republican hungerstrike victims
Falls Road is also a socialist stronghold
but on Shankill Road the Ulster Volunteers have a stronghold
Nelson Mandela has his own mural at the International Wall
