Blood and Honey Gun Nation @ The Half King

Family, Friends and Neighbours by Oistín Mac Bride was on view November 3 - December 1, 2001. For more information on this exhibit, please contact exhibits@a21group.com. An established photographer and occasional broadcaster, Oistín Mac Bride’s images have appeared in numerous publications including Parade, New York Daily News, LA Times, Village Voice and Latina. Broadcast assignments include CBS, BBC, RTE and RDF TV Germany. A committed political and human rights activist involved in a wide range of campaigns and issues, Mac Bride’s work has been used by NGO's such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and charities such as The American Ireland Fund, Concern Worldwide, Catholic Medical Mission Board and the African American Institute. For over 20 years, Oistín Mac Bride has covered events in the north of Ireland. The motivation for this project comes from Mac Bride’s life experiences growing up in the North. In 1972, Loyalists forced their way into the Mac Bride’s Belfast home and shot his father, Frank, and his fourteen-year-old brother, Tony, in front of the entire family. Frank subsequently died of his wounds. Tony, the oldest of five, took on much of the family responsibilities for his younger brothers and sisters. He later became involved with the IRA and, in 1984, he was apprehended, beaten and shot by the British Army. Oistín Mac Bride has been repeatedly arrested and detained in the course of covering the conflicts in the North. His equipment has been damaged or seized and he has been personally attacked and assaulted by Loyalists, RUC officers and British soldiers. Mac Bride has also testified as an Expert Witness on the north of Ireland during several U.S. Federal Court cases and to a U.S. Congressional Committee investigating human rights abuses in the north of Ireland. These images were selected from Mac Bride’s new book, Family, Friends and Neighbours: An Irish Photobiography, which has just been released in the United States. Mac Bride currently divides his time between Derry and New York. To see more of his work or to order a copy of his new book, go to www.oistin.com. “No section of our people has a monopoly on suffering. Calamity, distress and injustice have been the common experience of all of our people since partition in 1920. … During the past 30 years of political conflict, approximately 3,500 people lost their lives on all sides. In our small part of the world, this would be the equivalent in terms of U.S. losses of over half a million people. … I would encourage all who are touched by [these images] … to reach out in any way you can to work for peace and justice for all the Irish people. … Twenty years ago, Bobby Sands said: “Let our revenge be the laughter of our children.” That is the goal we must aspire to in the time ahead.” Gerry Adams commenting on Mac Bride's photography in June 2001