THE MARTIN LUTHER KING MURAL                                

In 2007 the Smitsonian Institute included Northern Ireland in its annual Folk-Life cultural festival. The Bogside Artists were invited to take part, despite vociferous objections from certain members of the Nothern Ireland Arts Council (they know who they are). Prior to our departure for Washington, the BBC in Belfast saw fit to broadcast a defamatory news item that tried to dub us and our murals as purely sectarian and nothing else. In so doing, they almost undid years of cross-community work we had pioneered in the city between Catholic and Protestant youth. It was suggested to us, by our hosts in Washington that we reproduce our Peace Mural on the Mall. We did just that, but decided that it would be appropriate to pay homage to Martin Luther King while we were at it. The mural was very warmly received, even if relatively few of the 400,000+ people who visited the festival were aware of the connection. Our gallant entrerprise was turned into a documentary film to be broadcast soon (April) by RTE. The reasons why we chose to paint King are not difficult to understand.

This year is the fortieth anniversary of King's death. It cannot be doubted that Martin Luther King was the most influential figure in the Northern Irish s truggle for human rights. Most people who witnessed it on television can recall King's speech on Washington's Capitol, the famous "I have a dream" speech that he delivered to over a quarter of a million people. His fight against segr egation and discrimination against blacks in housing and jobs resonated profoundly with Northern Irish Catholics who saw themselves as "the white negro" and who were well acquainted with political oppression. The phrase may have come from the late Norman Mailer's 1957 essay on American sexual politics but for Northern Irish Catholics it pointed to victimization and nothing else. Televised abuse of civil rights campaigners and marchers made King's Civil Rights Movement the most significant mass pr otest against injustice in American history. The media was to play an equally important role in the North's fight for justice.

        King's non-violent protests were modeled on Mahatma Gandhi's leadership. He was also an outspoken critic of American imperialism and the Vietnam  war. These views would have helped determine his fate. Politically, he was a socialist but stopped well short of Communism with its "materialistic interpretation of history" that denied religion what he fervently believed to be its proper status and place in the world.
        In  1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through non-violent means. Many of the movement's aims were achieved when the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 swiftly followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On February 1st 1967 The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was formed. On April 4th 1968 King was shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis while he was giving a speech from the balcony. On August of that year the first Northern Irish civil rights march began from Coalisland to Dungannon. Later, a march in Derry on october 5th ended in police violence that was televised world wide.

In a speech delivered at Boston University, King's Alma Mater, Nobel peace laureate John Hume paid tribute to the American human rights leader as one of the major influences on his work in Ireland. Last year John Hume was present at the dedication of The People's Gallery by ex-Bishop Edward Daly, also a leading figure throughout The Troubles that lasted over three decades.