Light Up the Famous Murals!

The Bogside Artists' Call For The Murals To Be Illuminated

Released on: October 22, 2010, 6:22 am
Author: Trevor Phillips
Industry: Entertainment

The Bogside Artists of Derry call on the government to fufill their pledge of seven years ago to light up their murals in the Bogside.

The Bogside Artists have launched an appeal on Google to have their murals lit up. Said Tom Kelly: “What a magnificent sight they would make if they were lit up, especially from the Derry walls overlooking the Bogside. Can you imagine how wonderful that would be? But as the control freaks who represent our community are hell-bent on dumbing down the Bogside and our history, which we have graphically depicted in The People’s Gallery we feel they need a kick to get them started. Seven years ago they publicly stated that money had been allocated for putting lights on the murals. We have waited long enough. It may suit the gamesmanship of political appeasement to see that our history is swept under the carpet and us with it but it does nothing for the locals or the myriad tourists who flock to the Bogside each year to see the muralS. Millions have been poured into marketing the “walled city” nonsense as if Derry, in the rain swept North of Ireland, was the only city in Europe to have medieval walls and all you have to do is sell this idiocy and they will come in their droves over hill and dale from all over the world to see the stone walls. Are these people for real or are they onto a good thing at the taxpayers’ expense? The guys who control tourism in the North of Ireland know full well why people come to Derry. They reserve the Bogside as a sort of peep show instead of what it actually is … one of the most unique art experiences in Europe and has been named as such in many books. They must think they are very clever indeed to have dumbed down the Bogside while milking it of every penny they can get.

Why can’t they bring themselves to see things as they are? The opposition is considerable from many quarters. They could be listed as follows;

(1) Wannabe artists who are jealous of our achievement and could have done better had they been born at the right time and known about Photoshop and been able to draw and paint.

(2) Lefties who are hung up on that phony Diego Rivera who painted his mediocre murals with assistance from many and at the invitation of the education minister twenty years after the Mexican revolution had ended. He cleared out to Paris when he heard the first shot. And if Eamonn McCann is falling over himself to state about bullet holes in Rivera’s murals he needs to go back to his history books and get it right.

(3) Ex-prisoners who feel they have a right to the story of the struggle because‘they paid the price' and we who illustrated the history of the struggle at enormous pains and personal cost do not. Our lives were threatened from the start by the UVF. We would have been a lot safer in prison. We were freezing to death up scaffolding in the Bogside while these 'heroes' were playing badminton in The Kesh.

(4) The Tourist Board and Paddy Wagons. The former are run by Unionists and the latter by Sinn Fein. It is in neither’s interests to promote the murals because they would be inadvertently promoting us. No keys of the city for The Bogside Artists, in other words, from either quarter. No nothing for The Bogside Artists if they can possibly help it. So, if our applications for funding continually fall on deaf ears this is the reason why. We are surrounded by mean, greedy, hypocritical people who like all mean, greedy, hypocritical people think they are right. It is a dog-eat-dog world they believe and can believe in nothing beyond that. So, you can see our situation. We call on everybody who has an ounce of moral sense or conscience left…

Let’s light up our history! Let us make decisions for ourselves for once. Light up our story for the world to see! Light up the walls! Bring bands in from all over thw world to celebrate our lives and the achievements of our forefathers in winning a modicum of justice from our oppressors even if they can win none from their own representatives. Bring in the bands and have them play at Free Derry Corner. Derry has bragging rights. Derry has a right to rock. The Bogside should not be buried alive! Do not put up with the Bogside being numbed out of existence so that the controlling few can reap the benefits of what they did not labour to bring forth and never had the vision or courage or talent to realize. Who could possibly object?

After a triumphal visit to China where they graced the country's leading Newspaper the Southern Weekly, The Bogside Artists, Tom Kelly, William Kelly and Kevin Hasson are off to Chicago next month. We can be sure to be hearing more about them.

Contact Details: 46 William Street.
phone; 02871-373842
k_336@hotmail.com
http://www.bogsideartists.com/

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