Belfast Murals Reimagine City’s Future

Signs grow business, signs direct, signs educate – we know this. It’s a particular affirmation of the value of our industry when it’s used a source for public good. Since the 17th Century, tensions have existed in Northern Ireland between Catholics, who want to leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland, and Protestants, who are loyal to British rule. Hostilities reached a peak in the 1960s and ‘70s, when military and police aggression, bombings and kidnapping became rampant in Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital city. Although a 1998 peace agreement formally ended hostilities and created a power-sharing government, Belfast is largely segregated and violence remains relatively commonplace.
Several East Belfast residents, a largely Protestant neighborhood, are striving to break ties with the city’s violence, and have undertaken an initiative to paint over paramilitary-propaganda murals that were painted during the troubles, according to Belfastlive.com. The citizens’ group has, through working with the community, developed a plan to paint over nine of the 10 pro-Ulster Protestant murals with commercial or apolitical, historic messages. They include signs that promote the Belfast Giants, the local ice-hockey team, classy street signage and a tribute to famous Irish boxers.
Kudos to the East Belfast residents who took the initiative to remove reminders of the community’s bloody past, and to all who played a role in helping signs heal ancient wounds.