The Murals of The Bogside. A World Famous Asset that was Never Marketed

Magee University Derry, Dr. Martin Melaugh reveals startling statistics about The People's Gallery, the suite of famous murals painted by The Bogside Artists. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) November 09, 2012 - The Bogside Artists await the fruits of the industry of the man appointed by the Derry City Council to secure funding for the restoration of their famous murals. Mr. Tony Monaghan CEO of the Economic Development Department has been given the task.

Says spokesman for the artists Tom Kelly: "It is important to note that millions have been spent over the last decade on promoting Derry as "the walled city"". "Not a single penny over the years", states Mr. Kelly, "has been spent on promoting what Dr. Melaugh's research show to be clearly Derry's second most cultural asset, The People's Gallery."

Dr. Martin Melaugh is a leading authority on 'The Troubles' and author of the award winning information website devoted to it called CAIN.

His findings endorse the fact of the murals' importance. These murals depict the troubles in the province over three decades as they affected the city of Derry and the area called The Bogside where they are situated. They are famous the world over and have been visited by countless thousands of people who flock to Derry annually to see them. The City Council have made no consistent attempt to fund them over the years except for the year 2004. They also refused to illuminate the murals in deference to other edifices in the city such as the Masonic hall, the Craigavon bridge etc.

Other art galleries in the city, such as the two mentioned in the stats below are massively funded year in and year out by the Northern Ireland Arts Council and other funding bodies. Recently the Bogside Artists had to leave their studio in the Bogside due to lack of funding and what they believe is discrimination.

THE OPEN LETTER FROM DR. MARTIN MELAUGH, MAGEE UNIVERSITY, DERRY

In 1999 I was happy to assist The Bogside Artists in making photographs and information about their murals available in a special section on the CAIN Web site (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/bogsideartists). This section was updated over the years as new murals were painted. Due to my work on CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet), I was already aware of the widespread interest in the topic of political wall murals. CAIN already included extracts from a number of books on the topic of murals and these Web pages were proving to be of interest to a wide range of people. I was happy to include information supplied by the artists on CAIN as this provided a new perspective on the topic.

Web Impact Statistics for 'The Bogside Artists'

Google Search Results (for various terms)

Search Term..................... Number of Results

'Derry City Council'............................... .154,000

'The Derry Walls'................................... 136,000

'The Bogside Artists'................................68,500

'The Verbal Arts Centre'..........................15,100

'Void Gallery' Londonderry....................... 7,420

The above information shows that The Bogside Artists have a significant presence on the Web (as determined by a Google search). This presence ranks very well when compared against the city walls and also against Derry City Council itself (given how large that organisation is). The Bogside Artists also have a higher Internet presence that many of the established 'indoor' galleries in Derry. And ranks way ahead of either the Void Gallery or The Verbal Arts Centre.

THE FACTS

Web links to: http://www.bogsideartists.com = 41,700

There are 41,700 Web pages that contain a link to the Web site of The Bogside Artists. This reflects a high level of interest in, and recommendation of, The Bogside Artists Web site.

Web links to: http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/bogsideartists/ = 1,990

Page views of The Bogside Artists section on CAIN during 2011 = 43,889

In addition to their own site, The Bogside Artists also have a presence on the CAIN Web site hosted by the University of Ulster. The above information shows the number of links to their section on CAIN and also the number of pages viewed during 2011.

Photographs of the Bogside muarls = 24,600

Google Images also lists 24,600 photographs on the Web with the subject tag 'Bogside murals'.

Note:
The above statistics are based on Web Searches undertaken by Martin Melaugh on 8 August 2012. Dr Martin Melaugh

CAIN Director, INCORE, Aberfoyle House, Magee Campus, University of Ulster
Tel: +44 (0)28 7167 5517. Email: m.melaugh ( @ ) ulster dot ac dot uk
Web: http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/

http://www.bogsidemurals.net

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