the bloody history of Northern Ireland sectarian conflict is painted on the capital Belfast walls over three decades three and a half thousand people were killed in violence between unionists Protestants and separatists Catholics though peace came in 1998 street art from the period is a lingering reminder but today a new wave of street artists are determined to mark their territory in a new way Michael was the tick the city to make it like completely different you know change the way it was in the wall give something positive something great cheerful something that people could relate to
rather than them to be oppressed the former DJ specializes in portraits his new series ranges from celebrity faces to the homeless and have earned him the moniker the Banksy of Belfast they're among over a hundred recent works across the city and though many are a political thumb contain traces of the painful past on this giant mural a dove is pierced with two arrows one symbolizing Catholicism the other Protestantism they're pretty messed up you know there's a lot of kind of angry gritty underground stuff going on here because we have a lot of anti-establishment stuff because
we have a really rubbish establishment so that kind of means that a lot of people are a lot about a lot of things and expressed that in their art and street arts part of that as well for decades street art has been used to delineate neighborhoods between the different communities of Belfast now with artists coming from around the world to paint sweetheart is flourishing again but this time with a goal of unity not division
