You cannot make this stuff up.
For many years a portrait of Che Guevara based on ‘Viva Che!’, my iconic red and black poster of 1968, adorned the huge sea wall protecting the County Clare seaside town of Kilkee.
The mural was to commemorate the fact that Che had visited Kilkee way back in 1961, that was when I met him and talked to him briefly in the Royal Marine Hotel. I was a 16 year old barman and served him some drinks, in our brief conversation he told me that he was Irish and Argentinian. I was gobsmacked as I presumed he was Cuban. (Check out The Che Guevara Poster Story Part 1 for more on this meeting)
The mural was also part of the 2012 Kilkee ‘Che do Bheata’ Festival celebrating all things Latin American. Nothing political, just celebration of culture, a celebration that filled up every bar and restaurant while I was there.
I attended this first festival myself in the company of Alieda Guevara, Che’s daughter and Cuban ambassador, Teresita Trujillo, a witty, kind, dynamic and wonderful woman.
Despite the wishes of the Kilkee Town Council, Council staff removed the huge mural back then despite agreement having been reached earlier that it should remain until the festival was over.
The mural was painted over just days before the festival was due to begin. The event organisers were told at the time that this was because a group of American tourists had left the town after seeing it.
This alleged ‘offence’ has never been verified so I presume some right wing knobhead made the entire thing up as an excuse to remove the very prominent mural that dominated the sea wall and the beach.
This alleged ‘offence’ has never been verified so I presume some right wing knobhead made the entire thing up as an excuse to remove the very prominent mural that dominated the sea wall and the beach.
New Che murals appear!
According to the founding member of the Kilkee Chamber of Commerce, John Williams, the new murals came as a “a spontaneous reaction by local people to the high-handed way in which the council removed the mural”.
Williams told the Irish Examiner: “There isn’t anything organized about it. It is people showing their own frustration at what the council did. From talking to people, “I would expect that there would be around six Che Guevara murals to be in place around Kilkee.”
He added that the erection of the new murals “is in the spirit of Che Guevara”.
The founder of the Che Do Bheatha festival, Tom Byrne said: “There was such a negative reaction to the Council’s heavy- handedness this year that it seemed inevitable that more such images have now appeared.”
Thankfully we have it back in time for the anniversary of his brutal murder tomorrow, October 9th, so there are plenty of good reasons to be cheerful.
Special thanks to the cool local artist who did this version.
I believe I met him once when I was having my photo taken beside the older mural during the making of a documentary back in 2017 or thereabouts.
‘Che Lives !’ once more in The Banner County. Viva Che !
As a Clareman by family roots I love to see it back on the sea wall once again.
Special thanks to my old college pal, Jim Quinn, who drove down from Ennis and took new photos for me of this beautiful version of my image.
JIM FITZPATRICK. 2023.