SAOIRSE32

News Letter
04 November 2009

COLOURFUL quilts made by Ulsterwomen depicting the human cost of the Troubles and hopes for a lasting peace are to be displayed at one of London’s most famous museums.

An anti-war exhibition called the Human Cost of War will feature three quilts documenting the trauma of the 1970s and recent protests against the dissident republican murders of PC Stephen Carroll and Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar.

The hand-sewn pieces, which will go on display at the Imperial War Museum this week, document the international cost of conflict and are part of a drive to give women a medium to express their reactions to the inhumanity and cruelty of violence.

Organised by the Movement for the Abolition of War (MAW), the exhibition shows quilts dealing with World War I, the Spanish Civil War and many other high-profile conflicts from across the globe.

Sonia Copeland’s ‘No Going Back’ arpillera which will go on display

The three quilts from the Province are: the ‘Northern Ireland Peace Quilt’ by Women Together, a cross-community group which focuses on reconciliation and the promotion of peace; ‘Common’ Loss by Irene MacWilliam, which charts every life lost in Ulster’s 30-year conflict; and No Going Back by Sonia Copeland from Ballygowan.

Sonia, wife of UUP MLA Michael, contributed an arpillera – a kind of textile work made for hanging on the wall – that captures Ulster’s response to dissident republican activity earlier this year.

‘No Going Back’ shows protestors gathered outside the City Hall, united in opposition to any return to violence in the Province.

The deaths of Stephen Carroll, Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar are noted at the top of the intricately-sewn piece.

“I wanted to capture one of the cross-community demonstrations which followed the murders of Constable Carroll and Sappers Quinsey and Azimkar,” said Sonia.

“I have shown the figures in different colours because I wanted to make it clear that people of all colours and creeds and from both sides of the community came together to declare that they did not want any return to the turmoil of the Troubles.

“It was a united call for peace that said – ‘there can be no going back’.”

Sonia said that the demonstration of support for the victims and their families was important to her personally because she served in the RUC during the worst years of the Troubles “and suffered as a result of terrorist attacks on four occasions”.

She added: “It seemed to me that peace, won as a result of so much pain and suffering, was under threat.

“At the demonstration I resolved that nothing and no-one should steal from our children the right to a peaceful life.”

• The Human Cost of War will go on display at the Imperial War Museum in London on November 8. Go to the website www.iwm.org.uk for more information.