Growing up in Belfast in the 70s and 80s

My childhood was very different to many of yours. I grew up in west Belfast, where the sound of bombs and gunshots was a normal everyday experience. With people being killed daily and British soldiers patrolling our streets; life on the streets just wasn't the same as we experience it today.

The weekend activities for youths in those days were very different to that that I know today. Instead of thinking about going out to socialise or play games the majority of local youths would go out to riot; with either people from the other side of the political of the other side, or with the British soldiers and/or RUC (royal Ulster constabulary).

During the 1970s and 80s Belfast was like a war-zone, and Belfast's troubled history has seen many tragedies and atrocities. These atrocities are illustrated in the many murals dotted all over Belfast, painted on the sides of houses.

These massive paintings are today a major Belfast attraction for tourists. In the past, however, they were a way for the residents of Belfast's troubled areas to get their points across, or make a plea or demand that the rest of world could see through the power of the media. Now these paintings have been brought to the internet.
A new site Taxi Belfast has uploaded photos of these paintings for us all to see.

You can see murals from both sides of the political divide. Some of the murals are commemorations of something that has happened in the past, or a memorial of people that have been killed.

There are 4 main sections of murals on the sites: murals from 4 of the hardest hit areas of Belfast - 3 nationalist areas: The Falls Road - the Republican backbone of west Belfast; Ballymurphy/Whiterock - west Belfast's Republican heart; and Ardoyne - the Republican stronghold of north Belfast, and 1 unionist area: The Shankill - the loyalist stronghold in west Belfast.

The main page of the Belfast murals section of this site Belfast Murals also show pictures of the famous Belfast peace wall. This wall is over 20 feet high, and stretches for miles, separating unionists and nationalists in west Belfast.

This is the situation that I grew up in - if you're interested in Irish history or the troubles of the north of Ireland then these pictures are a must see.