Picture gallery: Northern Ireland murals

Londonderry: Murals for the Battle of the Bogside and Bloody Sunday

Northern Ireland's political murals tell the stories of communities - and some of the darkest days of the Troubles. Here is a selection of some of them. More of the murals can be seen at the University of Ulster's Cain Project website, linked on the right of this page.

Most of the early republican murals focused on paramilitary issues of the hunger strikers. This one depicts an IRA honour guard for the funeral of a volunteer.

This loyalist mural in Belfast followed the same trend, commemorating fallen comrades and pledging the defence of a community.

Republicans soon widened their agenda to cover other issues affecting their community. This Falls Road mural demands that British troops should leave Northern Ireland.

This mural, also in Belfast, protests against the RUC's use of plastic bullets.

The most recent developments have focused on Irish history, including this depiction of the potato famine.

Some artists have turned to the style of political cartoonists; this mural attacks the protestant Orange Order.

This loyalist mural, dating from the first ceasefires, has been interpreted as sending mixed messages to both the nationalist and unionist communities.

In contrast, this mural, painted recently, has attempted to tie loyalism with a figure from Irish mythology.

Factional tensions between different loyalist groups has led to many murals on that side of the community commemorating individual figures - such as this one for Billy Wright of the LVF.

But this UFF mural is consistent with the current loyalist trend to use military imagery.

While this republican mural offers comment on the state of the political process, it has been vandalised with paint - often the fate of some of the most controversial murals.