the peace wall, cupar way, belfast

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Belfast has over 50  'peace walls' that were constructed to separate Protestant and Catholic communities. The Cupar Way Peace Wall was the first Peace Wall to be built during the Troubles, Built in 1969 after serious sectarian violence occurred in the area (Bombay Street) and over 50 years later this wall remains  in existence separating Catholic and Protestant communities. The Cupar Way Peace Wall is half a mile long and is covered in graffiti, murals, and writing both emotive and sectarian. 

The Peace Wall is one of Northern Ireland's most popular tourist destinations. It is both strikingly beautiful and visually.

In 2019 an exhibition of photographs of walls around the world was held by a German art gallery and Roger Waters of the rock band Pink Floyd  and this led to all the graffiti and murals being removed.  This act was to pave way for  a new display of graffiti and murals. The Peace Wall is now returning to its artistically colourful self as a new host of graffiti artists are revitalising the wall with a new display of great graffiti. 

I wanted to paint a depiction of the Peace Wall in its  entirety and accurately. It is not meant as an artistic 'for' or 'against' but as an artistic depiction of a structure that exists on the landscape. The work took 4 years to complete and 30 feet in length.  However, my painting is prior to the act that saw graffiti and murals being wiped away forever - my painting is now the only artistic rendition of the entire wall in existence today as to howt it looked like prior to August 2019's act of destroying years of the Wall's artistic and political history.