Belfast Street Art and Political Murals: A Complete Guide

Belfast’s walls tell its story. No other city in the British Isles uses murals the way Belfast does — as political statement, community identity, historical record, and, increasingly, as art that has nothing to do with politics at all. The city’s mural tradition stretches back over a century, but it was the Troubles (1968–1998) that turned gable walls into canvases and made Belfast’s murals famous worldwide.

Today, the murals exist in layers. Older political murals — sectarian, sometimes aggressive, sometimes commemorative — sit alongside newer work that reflects a city trying to move forward. The Cathedral Quarter has become a canvas for contemporary street art. International artists have painted walls alongside local ones. The result is a city where art and history are inescapable, where you can read the walls like a book if you know what you’re looking at.

This guide helps you look.

The Political Murals: History and Context

Belfast’s mural tradition dates to 1908, when Unionists painted images of King William III (William of Orange) to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. Throughout the 20th century, murals became a form of territorial marking and political communication for both Unionist/Loyalist and Nationalist/Republican communities.

During the Troubles, murals multiplied. They served several purposes: declaring which community controlled an area, commemorating those killed, supporting paramilitary organisations, conveying political messages, and reinforcing community identity. They were public, permanent, and impossible to ignore — which was the point.

Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the mural landscape has shifted. Some murals have been repainted with less militaristic imagery. Others remain as they were — either because communities want them preserved or because replacing them is politically sensitive. The result is a patchwork: some walls show paramilitary gunmen, others show Martin Luther King or Frederick Douglass, and others show transformative community art.

Understanding this context matters. These aren’t just paintings. They’re documents of a conflict that shaped this city and ended within living memory. Treat them — and the communities around them — with respect.

The Falls Road (Republican/Nationalist)

The Falls Road runs west from Belfast city centre through the heart of the Nationalist community. Its murals are among the most famous in the world.

Key Murals

The Bobby Sands Mural on the gable wall of the Sinn Féin office on the Falls Road is the single most iconic image. It shows the face of Bobby Sands — IRA member and MP who died on hunger strike in 1981, aged 27 — alongside his words: “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” Whatever your politics, the image is striking and the story it represents is central to understanding modern Northern Ireland.

The International Wall on Divis Street (just off the Falls Road) is a long stretch of wall covered in murals addressing solidarity themes — Palestine, Cuba, Basque Country, civil rights movements, Frederick Douglass, and anti-apartheid struggle. The murals here connect the Republican experience to global liberation movements. They change periodically as new panels are painted.

The hunger strike murals along the Falls Road commemorate the 1981 hunger strike in which ten Republican prisoners died. Individual portraits of each striker appear on separate walls.

The Irish language murals reflect the strong Irish language revival movement on the Falls Road. Street signs, school names, and cultural centres operate in Irish, and murals incorporate Irish text and symbolism.

Walking the Falls Road

From the city centre, walk or take a black cab west along Divis Street to the Falls Road. The murals are concentrated in the first mile or so. You can walk the route independently — it’s safe and there are no restrictions — but a guided tour (walking or by black cab) adds enormously to the experience. Local guides grew up in these streets and can contextualise what you’re seeing in ways a guidebook cannot.

The Shankill Road (Unionist/Loyalist)

The Shankill Road runs roughly parallel to the Falls Road on the other side of the peace walls. Its murals reflect the Loyalist/Unionist tradition.

Key Murals

The King Billy murals — images of William III on horseback at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) — are the oldest tradition in Belfast mural-painting and remain a common motif.

Paramilitary murals on the Shankill tend to be more explicitly militaristic than their Falls Road counterparts — images of armed UVF and UDA members, memorials to those killed, and territorial declarations. Some of these have been controversial within the Loyalist community itself, and re-imaging projects have replaced several with less aggressive artwork — images of local history, the Titanic, C.S. Lewis (who was born in east Belfast), and sporting figures.

The Shankill Memorial Garden murals commemorate members of the community killed during the Troubles. They’re sombre and personal rather than political in the aggressive sense.

Walking the Shankill Road

The Shankill is walkable from the city centre. Head north-west from the Westlink. As with the Falls Road, the area is safe for visitors. Be respectful — photograph walls, not people’s houses. Don’t pose grinning in front of paramilitary imagery. These murals represent real events that affected real families who still live here.

The Peace Walls

The peace walls — also called peace lines — are barriers separating Nationalist and Loyalist neighbourhoods. They were first erected in 1969 as temporary measures. Many still stand. Some are over 8 metres high. They’re made of steel, concrete, and brick, and in some places the gates between communities still close at night.

The most visited peace wall runs between the Falls Road and the Shankill Road, near Cupar Way. You can walk alongside it, and large sections have become a canvas for messages of peace, hope, and solidarity. Visitors write on the wall — it’s become a tradition, and markers are often available nearby.

The peace walls are simultaneously sobering and hopeful. Their existence is a reminder that division was — and in some ways still is — physical. The messages on them suggest a desire to move beyond that. The Northern Ireland Executive has committed to removing all peace walls by 2023 (a target that has not been met), and their future remains an open question decided by the communities on either side.

East Belfast

East Belfast has a smaller but notable mural tradition, primarily Loyalist in character. The C.S. Lewis Square area has murals celebrating the Narnia author, who was born on Dundela Avenue. The Newtownards Road has political murals, and the Connswater Community Greenway has some newer artistic installations.

The George Best mural on the Cregagh Road marks the childhood home area of Northern Ireland’s greatest footballer. It’s a pilgrimage site for football fans.

The Cathedral Quarter and Contemporary Street Art

Step away from the political murals and into the Cathedral Quarter, and Belfast’s walls take on a different character entirely. This is contemporary street art — commissioned and uncomissioned, local and international, abstract and figurative.

The Cathedral Quarter’s narrow streets and Victorian warehouses provide ideal canvases. Large-scale works appear on gable ends and car park walls. The art changes — new pieces replace old ones, walls are repainted, and the visual landscape evolves. This is street art as a living gallery rather than a fixed exhibition.

Notable spots include:

North Street and its side alleys — large-scale murals that rotate with new commissions
Hill Street and surrounding lanes — smaller works, paste-ups, and stencil art alongside the larger pieces
The entries (Belfast’s narrow alleyways) — where you’ll find more intimate, hidden pieces

The Hit the North street art festival has brought international artists to Belfast to paint large-scale works across the city. Several of these pieces remain visible years after the festival.

For more on what to see and do in this part of the city, our Belfast things to do guide covers the Cathedral Quarter in detail.

How to Visit: Practical Information

Guided Tours

Black cab tours are the classic way to see the political murals. A local driver takes you through the Falls Road, the Shankill Road, and the peace walls, providing commentary drawn from personal experience. Tours typically last 90 minutes to two hours and cost around £30-40 for the cab (not per person — share with others to split the cost). Drivers are usually from one community or the other, and their perspective reflects that — which is part of the value.

Walking tours are available through several companies and cover both the political murals and the Cathedral Quarter street art. Walking gives you more time to look closely and more flexibility to stop.

Self-guided is entirely possible. The murals are in public spaces on public streets. Walk at your own pace and use this guide or a mural map (available at the Visit Belfast Welcome Centre) to navigate.

Etiquette

Photograph the murals, not residents. The areas around the murals are people’s homes and neighbourhoods, not museum exhibits.
Don’t pose disrespectfully. Smiling selfies in front of images commemorating people who died is in poor taste.
Don’t paint on the peace walls without checking — while writing messages has become accepted in some sections, other areas are maintained or protected.
Be open to complexity. You will see imagery that makes you uncomfortable. That’s the point. Belfast’s murals don’t sanitise history.
Talk to people. Residents are generally happy to explain their murals if you approach with genuine curiosity rather than voyeurism.

When to Visit

The murals are accessible year-round and look striking in any weather — rain can actually intensify the colours. Daylight hours are best for photography. The Cathedral Quarter street art is best explored on foot during the day; the political murals can be visited any time but morning light on the Falls Road murals is particularly good.

The Bigger Picture

Belfast’s murals are often described as an “outdoor gallery,” and that’s partly true. But they’re more than art. They’re a city’s argument with itself — about identity, history, grievance, hope, and who gets to tell the story. Some are propaganda. Some are memorials. Some are genuinely great art. Many are all three at once.

The fact that they exist in the open, on public walls, in living neighbourhoods, is what makes them powerful. This isn’t history in a museum with explanatory plaques and a gift shop. It’s history on the side of someone’s house, refreshed every few years, sometimes painted over and replaced with something new. Belfast’s walls keep talking. The conversation isn’t finished.

For a broader view of the city, including the Cathedral Quarter, Titanic Belfast, and the food scene, see our best things to do in Belfast.