Occasionally I will take a walk through Belfast city centre on a Sunday morning. The shops and businesses don’t open until 1.0pm. It provides an opportunity to move at a slower pace. You can also take in some of the amazing street art. Having said that, Belfast is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination. Consequently, the Sunday morning streets aren’t as quiet as they used to be. This mural was painted by the artist Mateo (aka MTO) on a gable wall in Belfast in 2014. The boy is holding a dove that has been slewn by the twin arrows that represent both sides of the religious divide. His message, I guess, is that adherence to a particular religious identity can contribute to the demise of peace?
Update January 2025. Although religion is often blamed for being the cause of wars, it’s never that simple. Religious belief is often a flag of convenience. It is used as a cover for perpetrators of acts of war. They use it to absolve themselves of blame and deflect criticism. The sad truth is that wars are created, sustained and facilitated by entities whose aim is to, first of all, exercise control of a country or region and then exploit that place’s resources to increase their own wealth and power. We only have to look at the trail of global destruction and carnage that has resulted from colonialism. Nowhere is this more evident in 2025 than in Palestine. The evidence is there for all to see. Few nations have suffered such a long and protracted onslaught as the Palestinian people have done since the beginning of the 20th century. I read an article many years ago and the author described ‘peace’ in the Middle East as ‘a bleeding dove’. When i saw the mural of Son of Protagoras, it seemed an appropriate name for my website. A mournful acknowledgement of the fragility of the world and a humble nod to the suffering of its people.
Bleeding Dove 