Peace and Conflict in Public Space: Gendered Murals Shaping Belfast

In Belfast, murals have been widely used by armed groups and the community to make political statements. They spread specific representations of who and what peace, conflict and politics look like, transforming urban geographies. This article brings together research on visuality and geopolitical reflections on the everyday, the urban and peace, to understand the way place shapes peace and the way peace shapes place. By putting specific narratives on the wall, murals shape the city space as well as gendered understandings of peace and conflict. Despite some nuanced representations of women as political actors, women remain underrepresented on Belfast walls and often assigned to essentialised categories of apolitical motherhood. When muralists leave women out, or when they portray them in an essentialist way, it is political and shapes the city by excluding women from public space and leaving them to the home.