1st Feb 2014: McCann on Goya’s “3rd May 1808 In Madrid”

On Saturday 1st February 2014 Eamonn McCann returned to the recently launched Robert Ballagh Mural in order to talk about the painting by Goya which inspired Ballagh.  Here is a video of that event:

[vimeo 86397793  w=450 h=270]

This talk was part of the Bloody Sunday March Events for 2014.  Before the panel discussions opened at Pilot’s Row on Saturday, Eamonn McCann took a group of people across the street to the new Robert Ballagh mural in Glenfada Park. There he gave a short talk on the significance of Francisco Goya’s anti-war painting “The Third of May 1808 in Madrid” (El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid).

The talk took place in front of the new rendition of Robert Ballagh’s ‘pop art’ version of the painting entitled, “The Third of May – After Goya, 1970″. The new rendition by local artists was tweaked to incorporate the Derry skyline.

The location has poignant resonance with another date. It is at the corner of Glenfada Park  –  just feet away Jim Wray, William McKinney, Gerard McKinney and Gerard Donaghy were shot and fatally wounded on Sunday 30th January 1972.

McCann’s talk ranges through the history of Spain at  the time of Goya’s original painting, through the Spanish Civil War,  to modern issues about art in Derry.  Along the way he visits the many art works, including Picasso’s Guernica, inspired by Goya’s work.