Redacted

There are two basic types of redacted graffiti in this set. The graffiti that is neatly painted out is, in all likelihood, paramilitary/sectarian graffiti painted over by local councils or community groups with the approval of the local community. This a very visible example of the attempts to demilitarise Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent paramilitary ceasefires.All that sectarian hatred hidden beneath a thin veneer of polite paint seems to me to be a perfect metaphor for the current state of cross community relations in Northern Ireland- all the old hatreds are still there just tucked away out of sight, tacit, lurking, waiting.

The messily and/or partially redacted graffiti is, again in all probability, graffiti written as a warning to or threat against 'anti-social' individuals, people suspected or convicted of certain 'crimes' that are deemed unacceptable to the local community- sexual crimes, drug dealing, being a police informant etc. This graffiti would be redacted by the individuals themselves and i would ask that you would take a minute to think what that must be like.

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