Republican Belfast: A Political Tourist's Guide

by Robert Kerr

Republican Belfast: A Political Tourist's Guide, written by an Irish republican ex prisoner Rab Kerr is acknowledged as being the first republican tourist book written about Belfast. The book contains maps, photographs and commentary on all the sites of political and cultural interest in 'Republican Belfast'. Documenting the locations of all republican murals in the Greater Belfast area, as well as memorial gardens, museums and other such sites of interest. The book goes beyond listing the murals, plaques and memorials which can be found in the city and which are seen increasingly as one of Belfasts key tourist attractions.

The murals described in the book touch on the major events in Irish Republicanism. They display opinions on a mix of local as well as national and international events in both the present and past. This type of Street Art has proven successful not just in Belfast, but further afield and has grabbed many peoples' interest and in doing so tell they display a Republican point of view of the conflicts in Ireland.

Murals in the book focus on such events as the Hunger strikes of 1981, Collusion, Women in Struggle, deceased IRA Volunteers, the Israel-Palestine Conflict, The Basque Freedom Struggle, Racism and Sectarianism and the Easter Rising of 1916. Sections of the book are devoted to places such as Milltown Cemetery and Clifton Street Cemetery where many IRA Volunteers and members of the United Irishmen are buried. A section of the book dealing with Milltown Cemetery, Andersonstown Barracks, The Felons Club and some murals can be downloaded from the University of Ulster's CAIN website

Kerr is married to Sinn Féin politician Jennifer McCann.