Solidarity POWs

The work was created by Brazilian political cartoonist Carlos Latuff in collaboration with a local artist. It expresses solidarity between Irish republican and Palestinian prisoners.

The mural reflects a longstanding political and cultural connection between sections of the Irish republican movement and the Palestinian national movement. In Belfast, this relationship is expressed through murals that link local histories of conflict and imprisonment with international liberation movements.

The prison bars form the composition’s central visual element. They separate the two arms physically, while the handshake symbolically overcomes that division. The flag colours identify the communities represented, and “POWs” stands for Prisoners of War. In the context of the mural, the term refers to prisoners associated with the Irish republican and Palestinian causes.

The work illustrates how the political murals of West Belfast connect local conflict history with international struggles, using a concise visual language of shared identity, imprisonment and solidarity.