A seminar with Professor Bill Rolston 

Date: Tuesday 12 October 2004, 6.00 pm.
Venue: Minter Ellison Conference Room, level 13,    Sydney University Law School, 173-175 Phillip Street, Sydney.
Registration: There is no registration fee for this seminar.  

Political murals have been part of the street scene of Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland for almost a century. Painted by unionists in favour of continuing the link to Britain, they have spoken of that community's heroes, aspirations and increasingly fears. More recently, they have been dominated by paramilitary imagery. Republicans, in favour of a united Ireland, have been painting murals since the hunger strike of 1981 and have taken up a wide range of themes, including history, mythology, elections, international struggles, and the armed struggle of the IRA. 

The lecture will consider the developments in mural painting over the period but will focus on how both sets of murals have related to the peace process of the last decade.

Bill Rolston is Professor of Sociology at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown campus. For almost three decades Professor Rolston has been researching and writing about various aspects of Northern Ireland politics, society and culture. 

Professor Rolston’s recent publications include Drawing Support 3: Murals and Transition in the North of Ireland, (Beyond the Pale Publications 2003) and "Signs of the Times: Murals and Political Transformation in Northern Ireland", in Rosa Gonzalez (ed), The Representation of Ireland/s: Images from Outside and from Within, (Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, 2003). Professor Rolston has also published chapters in books such as Beyond September 11: an Anthology of Dissent, edited by Phil Scraton, and has published articles in journals including Race and Class, the Socio-Legal Newsletter and the Irish Studies Review.