A level playing field is what tourist boys are working at, in and for. By that we mean a reductio ad absurdum of the troubles to a cemetery for tourists. Prod murals versus Taig murals. More Taig murals in Derry of course with our own gallery lumped in for the show. We resent this naturally. as our murals are anything but ’more of the same’ among murals. Our gallery has been purposely reduced and diminished by councillors on the one hand and the tourist boys on the other who go along with the marketing of the “walled city” as if it constituted the only worthwhile point of interest the city has to offer. The truth is, if you take The People’s Gallery out of the equation which is the brainchild of single-mindedness and vision, you would get as many visitors to Derry as you got in 1960, so few indeed that records were not even kept. And in times of recession this is doubly true. Go figure. As the late Harold Pinter said; “There are people out there who want to rule the #&%!! world.”  How true. Whence do they come? Are they born or made? Who is driving? Do your believe in demonic forces, evil spirits? Will science help us to make the perpetual rule and limitless supply of these sods an impossibility? Place your bets.

The current exhibition at the gallery will soon be winding to a close. We have also revamped our front page to the website so that people know where we are and what we are about. Getting ready for our summer season. So far it has been a struggle financially with no support from our Derry City council, the very people you would expect to offer assistance. Mind you, they the oligarchs who run the joint recently paid for a business plan to be made for us. Some plan. We would publish it if we could keep out of court as a result. The gist of it was….. play ball with the incumbent groups who have a finger in the pie – called ‘stake holders’ incidentally, and you will survive. Otherwise it’s goobye from us and goodbye from them. Some business plan. The council do not even pay us to upkeep the murals.

Visitors to our studio are aghast, appalled, amazed. One woman we recall had to be seated and given a drink of water. I kid thee not. In other words, The Bogside Artists who have given the city of Derry one of the most significant tourist attractions in Northern Europe are still shipping water because the elected representatives of the people who take their monthly salaries with a gult-free straight face figure they we not deserve any help and we  should look after the twelve murals of The People’s Gallery at our own expense when we can barely make ends meet as it is. And our studio which is a legitamate tourist venue in its own right also deserves no help. Who is actually running the council?  Is it a council or a sort of mni-politburo? The incumbent arts officer has not darkened our door or visited our studio in over a decade, since he assumed office. Not even a phone call. There’s a man of principle! What did we do to any of them you might ask?  Nothing, in a word, except achieve something remarkable. In Derry that is all you have to do to get on the wrong side of a lot of people who have personal issues and alas….. positions of power that do not seem to have anything at all with serving the people who pay their wages and were dumb enough to elect them to office.  Serves them right.  As for us, “we sail on” as Columbus informed his mutionous crew. If you are an eccentric millionaire do get in touch.