THE BOGSIDE ARTISTS’ MURALS An Overview By Seamus Cradden

“Going into a riot zone was like going into battle, a very new experience for me. What a change from the Feis, concerts, football, fancy dress and numerous other assignments which up to then were the order of the day. They were replaced by burning buildings, snatch squads, rocks, petrol bombs, nail bombs, screaming rioters and abusive law enforcement officers.”1 At the time the troubles began, Willie Carson was working as a freelance photographer. This particular riot zone he describes here is the Bogside in Derry. Like all other working class areas in northern Ireland that hold a significant place in the history of the troubles, the Bogside has used gable-end wall murals to show people the significance of where they are. Protestant areas such as the Shankill Road, Sandy Row, the Fountain, Ballymena and Coleraine paint murals of loyalist gunmen, King Billy and memorials of loyalist volunteers. The same is said of nationalist areas such as the Falls Road, Andersonstown, Strabane, Creggan and the Divis Flats, in which wall murals show images of 1916, memorials to IRA volunteers, hunger strikers, republican gunmen and Sinn Fein election murals. Many of these wall murals show a portrayal of violence and are used to mark out political territory. As Bill Rolston tells us; “Murals are a part of a political definition; their function is mobilization…murals are not just folk artefact, but a crucial factor in the politicization of the community. Politically articulate murals simultaneously become expressions of and creators of community solidarity.”2 However what emerged in the Bogside in Derry was something different. In the wall murals that began to appear in what is generally perceived as a republican area, there were no tricolours, no masked gunmen, no slogans such as ‘freedom’, ‘resistance’ or ‘liberty’. Nor was there any reference to one particular party and/ or organisation. Instead, we began to see murals telling the story of the Bogside, from the Battle of the Bogside to Operation Motorman, told by working class people from the Bogside, who 1 2

So This Was Derry, Willie Carson, p.60 Bill Rolston, Politics and Painting: Murals and Conflict in Northern Ireland, p.124

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saw these events unfolding first-hand. They do not map out political territory. They are not confrontational or provocative. They do not put the fear of God into visitors who see them, but instead urge them to ask questions. They are not giving a message, but are instead telling a story, a story that can be recalled by people who still live in the area. So what inspired the Bogside Artists to tell their story in this way? What made them look beyond the methods used in other areas to paint murals that can relate to local people of all religious persuasions, and also those from other parts of the world? Why have they chosen the themes that are depicted in their murals? To answer these questions I will be looking at the Bogside Artists themselves, their background, and their own personal political views, if any. I will also be looking at the events they have decided to portray, what these events mean to the people of the Bogside, the local, national and international response to their work and where they hoped it would lead. The title of this essay is taken from a song called ‘The Bogside Calypso’, which demonstrates the way the people of the area use the events that happened there to show their pride in the Bogside.

Other aspects of the Bogside landscape are in areas such as Free Derry Corner, which marked out a ‘no-go’ area of the Bogside for the British army during the troubles. The wall is seen as the central point of the Bogside and people of the area feel a personal affiliation with it. Free Derry Corner lies directly underneath the Derry walls, in which a British army tower over-looked the area, and stands beside Walkers pillar (this has since been blown up), which was erected in memory to Reverend George Walker, one of the Governors of Derry during the siege, and therefore a symbol of Unionism.

During the Troubles the Bogside came to be a pre-dominantly Catholic area, and an area of high republican military activity. The presence of the British army watchtower on the walls would have been seen as provocative by the people of the area, given the 2

political situation at the time. Eamonn McCann describes the feelings of the people of the Bogside in his book War and an Irish Town. “No Protestant lived in the Bogside. The Unionist Party had seen to that. Not that the absence of Protestant neighbours was regarded by us as any deprivation. We came very early to our politics. One learned, quite literally at one’s mother’s knee, that Christ died for the human race and Patrick Pearse for the Irish section of it. The lessons were taught with dogmatic authority and were seemingly regarded as being of equal significance.”3 In light of this, it is hardly surprising that events that came about did occur. The area of the Bogside, like many other Catholic working-class areas in Northern Ireland, came about through the process of Gerrymandering, in which Unionist-run local councils crammed Catholics into small-spaced terraced houses, in many cases having more than one family living in the one house. The people who lived in these areas were in most cases unemployed (mainly due to their religion) and did not have the right to vote (again due to their religion). For this reason the people of the Bogside felt bitter resentment towards the Unionist population. The events that were to happen in the Bogside were to be some of the most significant events in the history of the Troubles.

Derry’s Walls: Symbols of British Brutality Reverend George Walker was killed in the battle of the Boyne in 1690. In 1826 W.H. Bartlett designed a pillar in memory to him to stand on the Derry Walls overlooking the Bogside. This became a primary signal in the Unionist tradition in Derry and was the centre of many Unionist celebrations in the city, such as the burning of Lundy. It also, 3

Eamonn McCann, War and an Irish Town, Pluto Press Limited, 1980 (reprinted 1984), p.9

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however, became a symbol of hatred and oppression to the nationalists in the Bogside, a tower of Unionist bigotry overlooking them day by day. Hardly surprising, therefore, that the pillar was blown up in 1973, at the height of the Troubles. In many ways it can be seen as a symbol of the oppressor looking down unfavourably on the oppressed. Oona Woods refers to the destruction of Walkers Pillar, saying that, “There was some satisfaction in the nationalist Bogside at the removal of an icon of loyalism that had looked down over the city since 1826".”4 At the time, it would be fair to say that the Bogside would have been very close to being described as a ‘shanty-town’, while the protestant Derry Walls with its grand designs, orange lodges and imperial monuments stood tall and proud above the people. This was how the people were characterised. The Protestants inside the walls were grand and prosperous, whereas the Catholics outside the walls were a far way lower in social class (this incidentally was not the case, as the Protestant area of the fountain was also an area of working class slum housing). Niall O’ Dochartaigh outlines the Unionist view of the city, saying that; “`The way the Protestant community related to the city began to change in the first years of violence. Rioting in the city centre, in which Protestant business premises and buildings associated with the Protestant community such as churches or halls were damaged, marked the beginning of the physical ‘assault’ on the ‘Protestant’ city centre. The establishment of the no-go areas shut off large areas of the city from the security forces and to a great extent from local Protestants. For many Protestants, it was ‘terrible to think there was a no-go area in our city’ (Jim Guy, Independent Unionist councillor and former mayor of Derry) particularly when those areas ran along the edge of the city centre.”5 If the walls can be described as the Unionists attempt to maintain control of the city, then it is interesting that the murals that appeared in the Bogside directly face these

4

Oona Woods, Seeing Is Believing? Murals in Derry, p.14 Niall O’ Dochartaigh, From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles, p.294

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walls. The reason for this is that the murals tell the story of the normal people, not the way it is told in the media, and in many ways telling their story to the state. I interviewed one of the Bogside Artists, Kevin Hassan, who said that they used to go to the walls to look down for a panorama of the area, and that we can notice that every mural in the Bogside has at least one single large figure that can be seen both at a glance and clearly from he walls. In light of this, the painting of the murals on the walls of the Bogside began the issue of ‘our walls and their walls’.6

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Interview with Kevin Hasson, Bogside Artist, 16/12/05

Mural Painting in Free Derry

The Bogside is a much-politicised area, mainly perhaps due to the events that unfolded there during the Troubles. Events such as the Battle of the Bogside, Bloody Sunday and Operation Motorman in many ways led to the shaping of the Bogside landscape. Central to this is the Free Derry Wall. Free Derry was established after the attack on a Civil Rights march by B-Specials at Burntollet Bridge. A local man named John

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‘Caker’ Casey painted the words ‘You Are Now Entering Free Derry’ on the gable end of a house on Lecky Road, therefore establishing the Bogside as a no-go area for the British army during the Troubles. The Free Derry wall has since became central to the landscape of the Bogside, and looked upon by people in the area with a great sense of pride. Willie Carson describes the sentiment that local people have with the Free Derry wall, describing it as having a history of its own, and saying that removing the wall “would cause a near revolution”.7 The murals that appeared in the Bogside in recent years in many ways support the Free Derry wall as having a central location in the Bogside. The above picture shows how the murals are erected on the gable ends of terraced houses and flats, while Free Derry Corner, having been preserved over the years, stands alone in the centre. Oona Woods also tells us that, Media portrayals of the conflict in Northern Ireland have consistently used murals as indicators of the political climate given at the time. Murals are an art form as well as a public expression of feeling and identity. They are more dynamic than political commentary and, to a larger extent, freer from the constraints of censorship and control.8 This shows the importance and effectiveness of murals in the north. However the murals in the Bogside differ to murals in other areas in that instead of marking territory or claiming ownership, they tell a story of a politically significant area. When I asked one of the Bogside Artists about their work, he told me that their aim was to move away from the common practice of mural painting and to bring the story away from the media and back to the people. They never involved themselves with the usual practice of propagandist mural painting.9 However their original intention was to erect one mural to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Battle of the Bogside.

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Willie Carson, Vanishing Derry, p.26 Oona Woods, Seeing Is Believing? Murals in Derry, p.4 9 Interview with Kevin Hassan, Bogside Artist, 16/12/05 8

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The reaction to the mural was inspiring to the muralists. It is a depiction of a photograph taken by photographer Clive Limpkin. We therefore immediately see that they did not invent the image, nor did they use any slogans on the mural, but instead they took a photograph of an actual event that happened in the area that would stand out and capture the attentions of those who saw it. Speaking of the mural, the artists themselves say that: Of all our murals, it is the one that appears to have the most appeal. Just as Michelangelo’s Statue of David ushered in the new Republic and demonstrated Florentine virtues and self-reliance, so also does The Petrol Bomber mural put a face on the struggle for civil rights and gives voice to the resolve of oppressed peoples everywhere; it owes its popularity to that.10 Due to the positive feedback from the people of the area, the artists decided to take the work further. They decided to erect further murals that will tell the story of the Bogside, depicting events such as Bloody Sunday and Operation Motorman and other events that were not only of great importance in Derry, but in the whole of northern Ireland.

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William Kelly, Murals: The Bogside Artists, (contributions from Tom Kelly and Kevin Hasson), p.46

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The above mural is of Bernadette Devlin, a leader of the People’s Democracy and a key figure of civil rights in Derry. She was also the youngest ever elected M.P. to Westminster.

Above mural is an image of Bloody Sunday, an event that still remains fresh in the minds of Derry people. This is evident in a comment made by Willie Carson, who says: I still get a chill as I look back to that fateful day, one of great sadness for the whole city.11

The three murals above show people from the area who have become figures of importance for various reasons. The H-Block mural is of Raymond McCartney, from Derry, who took part in the historical blanket protest. On the right is an image of a civil rights march, showing figures who played important roles in civil rights in Derry.

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Willie Carson, So This Was Derry, p.91

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The above mural on the left is extremely significant in that it is so personal. The mural, named ‘The Death of Innocence’, is of Annette McGavigan, a local of the Bogside, who was killed by British army gunfire in 1971 at the age of 14. The other is a scene from Operation Motorman, when the British army entered and raided the Bogside. The fact that these two murals are pointed towards Derry’s Walls is of great importance. They are a constant reminder to the Unionists and the British forces of the hurt that the people of the Bogside have been put through.

It is clear from looking at these murals that there is no intention of propaganda, nor is there any intention to isolate or intimidate any section of the community. These murals tell the story of the Bogside, told by the people of the Bogside. The images are not invented by the artists, but are actual images of actual events. Today, the struggle for recognition of the significance of these murals still goes on. In a recent article in the Derry Journal, the artists accused Derry tourism chiefs as presenting the Bogside as a ‘peripheral distraction’, while promoting the Walls as a ‘must see’ destination.12 Therefore the issue of ‘our walls and their walls’ still exists even today.

When I interviewed Kevin Hasson of the Bogside Artists, he told me that the people of the Bogside have come to be defined by their murals. The murals depict the events and the people of a working class area, defining them as “ordinary working class people who

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Derry Journal, Friday 29th July 2005

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finally got off their knees and stood up against the state”, as opposed to a celebration of violence. The murals have enjoyed popularity locally, nationally and internationally, mainly due to their originality, evident by the fact that they hold workshops locally, in all parts of the community, and internationally, in various Universities around the world. Their work has even been referred to in a song called the Bogside Calypso, written by Brian Friel.

Conclusion Oona Woods tells us that; One positive aspect of murals is their accessibility – they are not enshrined in an art gallery but are instead naturally absorbed into the everyday environment. Some choose to describe them as ‘interactive landscapes’ rather than murals. This is because of their engagement with the community through representations of their identity, history and culture.13 This is especially true of the murals in the Bogside. They are of significant events that happened in the area and that are still fresh in many people’s memories. It gave the people of the area a voice to tell their story as opposed the usual media interpretations. When I interviewed Kevin Hasson, he told me that their intention was to provide the people with somewhat of an open-air art gallery. He also pointed out the interesting point that despite the number of youths that stand around in the area on a daily basis, the murals have never been defaced, giving an example of the support the people of the Bogside have given to these murals and what they mean to them. What is also interesting, as Kevin Hasson pointed out to me, is when you think about if the murals weren’t there, then what would be?

Here the question can be asked, what influence has the murals had to the landscape of the Bogside? The view of cultural geographer Estyn Evans in terms of cultural 13

Oona Woods, Seeing Is Believing? Murals in Derry, p.6

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landscape, is that the landscape shapes mans culture, and that to understand Ireland’s personality you need to also understand her heritage, therefore also drawing on history as well as geography. This view has been more recently contested by others such as Don Mitchell, who believes that old style cultural geography focuses too much on the past, and that the old focus of ‘uniqueness’ is inadequate and the ‘sense of place’ means nothing to today. In light of Mitchell’s view, the murals can be arguably of little significance to the landscape of the Bogside. However when we look at the traditional view of Evans, that the landscape shapes the culture, then we can relate this immediately to the Bogside and what the artists were doing in the area. The Bogside, a working class area, high unemployment, slum housing, nationalist (therefore in the eyes of the state republican), outskirts of the city, being greatly towered upon by the Derry Walls, Walker’s Pillar, the British army barracks and watchtower, symbols of unionist dominance and power, wealthy Protestant businessmen working within the walls, given certain ‘privileges’ that those in the Bogside are denied simply because of their social status. This is why events such as Bloody Sunday and the Battle of the Bogside occurred. The murals in the Bogside are not celebrations of the events as such, but more of reminders of the significance of the Bogside. When I spoke to Kevin Hasson, he told me one of the aims of the murals in the Bogside was to go against those elements in the city who would rather forget about the events of the past.14

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Interview with Kevin Hassan, Bogside Artist, 16/12/05

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The artists are not denying that there is a great need to move forward, evident in their painting of a peace mural in the Bogside among the other murals. However if we go back to the idea of Evans, that the landscape of an area owes much to the history, then this is exactly what the Bogside murals are doing. They are reminding people of the history of the events that made the area what it is today, as well as offering a warning of what a return to this violence would do to the area. Oona Woods reflects on an occasion when the Housing Executive was asked about its policy on wall murals; The points most forcefully made in reply were the importance of close consultation with the community and ensuring that full co-operation has been achieved before any action is taken…it is unwilling to enforce any policies against the wishes of the occupants and accepts it would be virtually impossible to remove a mural if it existed with the consent of those living in the area. This is a crucial point; murals are closely tied in with their surrounding society and any attempt to understand them divorced from the community would be meaningless.15 Therefore the contribution of wall murals to the landscape of the area depends on your view of the cultural landscape. What we have seen here is that, in terms of the traditional view, the Bogside Artists have offered the people to tell their own history, stories that can help to understand the landscape of the Bogside. For this reason the people of the area have adopted quite a personal affiliation with these murals. To sum up, therefore, Dr. Martin Melaugh, author of the CAIN website, comments on the murals in saying that; The large-scale murals painted by the Bogside Artists have become an important part of the physical, social and political landscape of Derry. In contrast to other murals,

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Oona Woods, Seeing Is Believing? Murals in Derry, p.6

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which deal fleetingly with current political issues before being painted over in a few weeks or months, those of the Bogside Artists deal with major events and issues that will still resonate in another generation.16

Seamus Cradden Copyright 2006

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Taken from William Kelly, : The Bogside Artists, (contributions from Tom Kelly and Kevin Hasson), p.18

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