Professor and Author Phil Scraton of Queens University Belfast, backs Liverpool Mural Project

Respected Queen's University Professor Phil Scraton author of the acclaimed book
'Hillsborough: The Truth' wrote to TLMP confirming his full backing and support for what we plan to do in Liverpool in the coming year.

“I am surprised and dismayed that the Liverpool Culture Company has declined financial support for The Liverpool Mural Project in anticipation of the '08 celebrations.

"As a Liverpudlian, now living and working in Belfast, I am deeply committed to developing and consolidating the strong historical and contemporary links between the two cities. One of the great successes of both cities is the strength and resilience demonstrated by our working class people in overcoming adversity, political and economic, in building cross-community alliances aimed at embracing diversity rather than allowing its worst excesses to destroy our lives. Both cities have emerged from economic marginalisation and inter-community conflict and experiencing the struggles of transition".

"On the 4 August 2007, I was with some of the Belfast artists who are part of The Liverpool Mural Project along with other helpers as they reproduced Picasso's Guernica on the world famous International Wall. Alongside, they were painting another mural on the International Brigades defiance of fascism in the Spanish Civil War. The power of murals to represent the mood and emotions of a community is more than symbolic.”

"It is my sincere conviction that the The Liverpool Mural Project, should it come to fruition, would make an outstanding contribution to the '08 celebrations. If the Project had been put forward in Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, San Francisco, Athens and so on - the list is endless - I am convinced it would have received support. I urge the Culture Company to think again".

Professor Phil Scraton
Author of 'Hillsborough: The Truth'.