Red is the Colour
Originally uploaded by Gary McMurray.
Today I was down in Belfast city centre, with my camera. Today I was going to start taking photos again as I haven't touched my camera in almost a month. As it would turn out, I arrived as a Trade Union march was gathering, so I was able to get lots of photos!
The march was to protest for peace in the Gaza strip, and to call on Israel to begin a ceasefire. Maybe about 2000 people took part, as the parade wound its way from St Anne's Cathedral to City Hall. I didn't stick around for the speeches, but the BBC is reporting that people from the 'four main churches' as well as trade union representatives and politicians spoke.
You can see lots more photos at my Flickr - the majority of participants were probably from the nationalist / republican community. Whilst there were lots of banners from Sinn Fein and SDLP Youth, there were no visible signs of unionism, apart from trade unionism.
I did spot Nelson McCausland standing watching, taking photos on his mobile phone, but that probably doesn't count as an endorsement of the parade by him.
The photo used in this post is of the Socialist Youth. I wouldn't agree with their politics, yet they seemed very passionate in their shouting and protesting. Plus, the colour is very vivid.
Great photo Gary (and liked the others on Flickr too). I'm certainly not against protesting about what is happening in Gaza, but it's amazing to see so may people protesting about something that has no direct impact on them in a place that very few of them have ever been to - just goes to show the power of the media images and reports...
ReplyDeleteThey've been talking about this on Radio Ulster's programme 'Seven Days' - especially about how Israel and Palestine captures the imagination in Northern Ireland, with people taking sides.
ReplyDeleteThe media is indeed powerful, which may just be scary, given the biases that journalists may bring with them in their reports...
Interestingly, I was in Dublin yesterday and they also had the same protest there.
ReplyDelete