A 'Partition Has Failed' slogan has been erected on the Black Mountain overlooking Belfast by a local art collective.
The display by Gael Force Art appeared on the hills overlooking West Belfast this morning. It comes on the 100th anniversary of the installation of the North's first unionist government in Belfast.
In a statement, Gael Force Art said partition has "undermined" all-Ireland opinion and "was forced on the Irish people".
The collective, which has previously garnered attention for anti-PSNI, pro-Palestine and organ donation displays on the mountain, stated that "after 100 years partition has failed".
"The British Government want Nationalists/Catholics to celebrate the centenary of this putrid little state?," the group stated.
"When the British King opened the northern parliament in Belfast in 1921 he said, 'I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land which they love a new era of peace, contentment, and goodwill.' At the same time his government had armed the unionist majority against the nationalist minority creating one of the most militarised states in western Europe.
"Also, from 1920-22 almost 500 people were killed in Belfast alone, two-thirds of them Catholics, though Catholics were only 25 per cent of the city’s population. The majority of these killings occurred after the Truce of July 1921, exacerbated when the British government handed security powers to a unionist militia. And this is why partition has failed."
Gael Force Art said the partition was "built on the blood of a persecuted Nationalist/Catholic minority".
"From the outset of partition the Unionist Party concentrated on securing its position by establishing its own paramilitary police force, the Ulster Special Constabulary, who along with the Royal Ulster Constabulary had a wide range of draconian powers under the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act," they added.
In listing what it describes as the failures of partition, Gael Force Art mentioned state collusion with "pro-British death squads for assassination" including the UDA, UVF and UDR.
"The British State not only sponsored these death-squads, they continue to thwart and cover-up and any investigations into these deaths. And this is why partition has failed."
The collective also raised historic examples of electoral gerrymandering, and direct rule, and criticised the Stormont Assembly, which it describes as "a model of colonialism" used to "maintain the rule of the British Empire."
