03 octobre 2008
New Murals
Taken around Ravenhill Road, in East Belfast, a Loyalist part of Belfast.
Sorry for the van right in front. Couldn't push it aside alone.
More pictures in the photo album MURALS
17 juin 2008
Whatthehelldoesitmean?
The mural of the day (for once, no weapons, no blood, no killings) :
And also, today, first big rain :
15 juin 2008
TOUR GUIDE
Yesterday, I went with people of my workteam for a Guided Tour of Belfast, through the districts were bad things happened since 1968 (year when the problems started to arise between Protestants and Catholics, fostered by the British). So we took a black cab and were given a cabdriver who told us, from the beginning that he was Irish, Republican, that this was an Irish territory ! And here we go !
The main attraction of the Tour, of course, were the murals, the wall painted in remembrance of martyrs for example (there are more than 2000 murals in all Northern Ireland!). But since Northern Ireland knows a so called "Peace Process" (it's not yet Peace!) things are going a lot smoother now, and you can see that with the dozens of Tour Guides through the city. It has become a really touristic attraction now. And, about the murals, i won't be able to display them all here, but here are some on the Solidarity Wall : murals dedicated to other conflicts of the same kind all around the world, about Land and Freedom : Palestinians, Irak, Basques...
Also, we saw the Clonard Memorial (<<< picture), about the victims of Bombay street, situated just on the edge of the socalled "Peace Wall", the frontier between Catholics and Protestants districts. But as you can see at the terraces covered with wires and fences (second picture), there is not much trust, and they still need to protect themselves from clubs, balls, stones, bottles thrown above the wall. On this side of the wall, the Irish flag is displayed, and on the other side, you will see only the Union Jack.
There is even a wall in the Belfast Cimeterry which separates Catholics and Protestants tombs ! They don't even trust each other after death ! We visited the memorial to volunteers of IRA killed by British troops. A lot of incidents happened during the funerals too.
So, to put in a nutshell, according our guide, the "Brits" are the biggest war criminals of the second half of the XXth century, Thatcher wanted bodies, John Major was a fool, they didnt respect nor the Human Rights nor the Geneva rules conventions, tortured, applied a politic of "Shoot and Kill" every time they wanted, and presented themselves before the international community as "Peacekeepers" in a situation which they created by themselves.
Maybe I should try to find the Protestant City Tour now :)