It is an axiom that art through the ages has presaged social change. Happily a group of artists in Colmcille's beloved Derry, the second largest city in the Six Counties, have just brought to a conclusion a unique string of murals that have earned them fame far beyond their homeland, with a final offering that offers hope for lasting peace in that enclave of Ireland still remaining under foreign (British) rule.

Known as the Bogside Artists, Tom Kelly, his brother Willie, and Kevin Hasson, have devoted their talents over the last ten years to portraying the stark reality of life in their troubled city from "Bloody Sunday" in 1972 to internment without trial, the Diplock courts, the hunger strikes which resulted in the deaths of ten men, to the present era.

In nine massive murals displayed along Rossville Street in Derry they chronicled the sorrows of "the Troubles". Now in their tenth mural they foresee a time of peace, of harmony, of a better life for all.

The trio, described by elitists as "being from the working class", captured an Irish Guernica with their first nine murals.

For their tenth and final work, they asked children for their ideas for a peace mural. They were ideally qualified to seek the views of children, for the trio run art workshops for children from all backgrounds in that artificially divided society that is Britain's legacy in the Six Counties. And it was those ideas to which they have given symbolic expression in their last artistic labour of love.

Set on a background of coloured squares, chosen to represent equality since squares are equal on all sides, is the white outline of a dove, symbol of peace, emerging from an oak leaf, traditionally an emblem of Colmcille's beloved oak grove on the banks of the Swilly.

The original Irish name of Derry is Doire Colmcille, the oak grove of Colmcille. In a vain attempt to wipe out its historic connotation, it was renamed Londonderry by later English settlers and planters, some of whose descendants opposed the return to its traditional name as decided upon by the Corporation of Derry.

The Derry City Peace Mural

The Bogside Artists may well be the visionaries of better and happier days in that part of Ireland which has suffered severance from the rest of the country for far too long.

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