A chara, – I wish to respond to the item in Miriam Lord’s Week (October 15th): “The writing’s on the wall for Martin”. As one of the artists who painted the mural, I was slightly disappointed that your intrepid photographer did not spot the piece until it was temporarily covered by an election poster for Martin McGuinness. The piece has been there for the past six months (long pre-dating Martin McGuinness’s commendable decision to contest the election) and was commissioned for the 30th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike. Its creation had nothing whatsoever to do with Mr McGuinness’s run for the Áras, however both ourselves and the owner of The Auld Triangle pub were happy for Mr McGuinness’s team to use the site.
We surely wouldn’t paint a mural with only four of the 12 hunger strikers.
On the other hand, I was delighted to read that Ms Lord believes it would be good for tourism and culture to do more “muriels” here in the capital, and I heartily agree.
Perhaps next could be a commemoration of the 1913 Lock-out to be finished for next year and then more in the run up to 2016? Anyone with large wall space available for such worthy endeavours should contact either myself or their local Sinn Féin constituency office. – Is mise,