Stitching It Together

It all started when…

Stitching It Together explores the town of Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. Carrickfergus is a protestant town which over the past decade has displayed more Union Jack’s, created several murals, and re-designed Ulster murals to remove imagery of people in balaclavas wielding weapons. As well as shaping their community through a nationalist identity, they also participate in the 11th July “Eleventh Night” bonfire celebrations aimed at celebrating the Protestant victory of the “Battle of the Boyne’ 1690. The Eleventh Night leads up Orangemen’s Day on the 12th of July.

The problem that arises from the creation and display of the murals and bonfires is the platform for discrimination it creates: The Protestant celebrations take place in a divided country between the contrasting ideologies of the Catholic community in the Northern Ireland - who want the Republic of Ireland to regain sovereignty over Northern Ireland. This conflict then gets perpetuated by the display of murals and symbols against the IRA and Catholic communities.

In 2015 when a bonfire was being prepared for the 11th night celebrations in Carrickfergus, members of the community installed racist flags around the bonfire…

“A number of racist flags have been removed from areas bear a loyalist bonfire site in Carrickfergus, just north of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Several Nazi flags featuring the Swastika and the Confederate flag ... were among a number of other sectarian flags flown around the site of the bonfire, ahead of the annual 11th night bonfire festival” (Whyte, 2015)

By using Google Street View I was able to travel through time between years to see how the Protestant ideology of this community has changed over time.