Monday, July 07, 2008

England's most influential and popular radical figure Tony Benn meets TLMP's Belfast artists

Whilst painting their first Liverpool mural, Danny Devenny, Mark Ervine and Micky Doherty took time out to meet the elder statesman of radical politics, former Labour MP and Cabinet Minister Tony Benn. The idea for introducing Benn to the Belfast muralists came from Stuart Borthwick, trustee of Liverpool's 'Writing on the Wall' festival. Commenting on the meeting, Stuart said,

"Tony was working at our festival alongside folk musician Roy Bailey, performing a history of popular protest also entitled "Writing on the Wall". When I realised that Danny, Mark and Micky were working on the mural in North Liverpool at the same time, I couldn't resist the temptation to introduce the two parties. Tony was delighted to hear of the non-sectarian cross-community nature of the Liverpool Mural Project, and spoke of how murals also represented a history of dissent. Equally, the Belfast artists seemed very pleased that within 24 hours of arriving in Liverpool, they'd met England's most influential and popular radical figure!

As an organisation, Writing on the Wall have always supported the Liverpool Mural Project, and we hope that the two organisations can work together in the future."