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Alex French edited the blog post “Frederick Douglass…” in the group Irish Studies: 7 years ago
Frederick Douglass visited Belfast in 1845 and was both impressed by the lack of racial prejudice he was met with during his stay and felt connected to the struggles of the peasantry that he observed, though it is important to note that his experiences with race, “undoubtedly stemmed in large part from the fact that he was moving in the g…
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Alex French wrote a new post on the site Irish Studies 9 years, 4 months ago
[caption id="attachment_891" align="alignleft" width="263" class=" "] “Askatasuna…”[/caption]
This mural expresses support for the Basque nationalists, and is one of a few murals in this vein. It, and murals of a similar tradition, read almost like political cartoons and are sorts of calls to action rather than agents of interpolation into a way of viewing the conflict in Northern Ireland within history. There are other murals like this addressing political issues in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Palestine.
Gerry Adams visited Basque in 1998 and though this mural was created in 2008, “The appearance of [earlier murals about Basque] coincided with efforts on the part of Irish republicans to support the Basque struggle for independence and subsequently to help broker a peace process” (Rolston, 459).
This particular image is focused on the sovereignty of the three regions of Basque and is direct in commanding, “Not Spain not France self-determination for Basque country.” The word ‘Askatasuna’ is the Basque word for freedom and in other murals was joined with the Gaelic word for freedom as well (Rolston, 459).
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Alex French wrote a new post on the site Irish Studies 9 years, 4 months ago
“A Tribute to John Hume” was painted by the Bogside Artists in 2008 in an effort to depict Hume, “not as a politician or even as a popular leader but as a man of peace”
[caption id="attachment_775" align="alignright" width="480" class=" "] “A Tribute to John Hume”[/caption]
(The People’s Gallery). John Hume was a key player in the formation of the Good Friday Agreement, a leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Civil Rights movement, and a member of the Northern Ireland, British, and European Parliaments.
Hume is placed in the company of Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, and Nelson Mandela, all winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. This clearly positions him as a peace maker—as the Bogside Artists wanted. Each of these figures also had some involvement in Northern Ireland. Mother Theresa was educated in Dublin (The People’s Gallery), Nelson Mandela met with Gerry Adams in 1995, one of many, “Community activists and ex-combatants [who] traveled in both directions, observing developments and sharing views” as South Africa and Ireland developed through sometimes parallel struggles (Rolston, 463), and Hume cited Martin Luther King Jr. as his biggest influence, following in the tradition of, “Irish civil rights activists in the late 1960s [who] consciously modeled elements of their campaign on what Black Americans were doing contemporaneously” (Rolston, 464).
The other major element of this mural is the bridge which was modeled off the Brooklyn Bridge because of the, “belief held by many during its construction that it would collapse because of its span” and because according to the Bogside Artists: “Peace in Northern Ireland is to politics what the Brooklyn Bridge is to engineering, an almost miraculous achievement!” (The People’s Gallery).
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Alex French wrote a new post on the site Irish Studies 10 years, 2 months ago
As discussed today in class, the basic interpretation of “The Song of Wandering Aengus” is straightforward. The narrator, Aengus, represents nationalists seeking to return to an idealized Ireland, as symbolized by […]
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Alex French and Rob Doggett are now friends 10 years, 2 months ago
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Rob Doggett and Alex French are now friends 10 years, 2 months ago
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Alex French joined the group Irish Studies 10 years, 2 months ago
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Alex French became a registered member 10 years, 2 months ago