Gerrymandering

The principle behind gerrymandering is to arrange voting wards in such a way that the 'minority' party has a majority of votes in most of the small wards, while the bulk of the opposition's supporters (the 'majority' party) are corralled in as few large wards as possible. The small wards then elect the same number of representatives to the local government as the larger wards, hence the 'minority' party has control of the corporation or council. Derry provided the classic case of gerrymandering whereby a Nationalist majority of votes was transformed into a minority of councillors on the Londonderry Corporation.
Our painting depicts the remnants of a typical family from the early sixties. They lived in the heart of the Bogside. The little girl's dress is a somber red, the only colour in the painting, the badge as it were of a sad life and a dismal future. Her father's face is a mask created by a lifetime of futile dreams and quiet despair.