Belfast buildings lit up red for Polish Solidarity movement

Belfast City Hall was lit in the Polish national colours of red and white, while the Solidarity logo was beamed on to the MAC to commemorate the founding of the independent trade union on August 31 1980.

Solidarity, Solidarnosc in Polish, made an important contribution to the dismantling of the authoritarian communist political regime in Poland and beyond.

Led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Lech Walesa, the trade union is renowned for its non-violent, practical diplomacy and created a precedent for peaceful transition into government.

There are around 30,000 Poles who lives in Northern Ireland, making the Polish the largest immigrant community in the region.

Councillor Michael Long, who proposed the lighting up of City Hall, described the founding of the Solidarity independent trade union 40 years ago as a “huge political event that reshaped much of Europe”.

“People across Northern Ireland will remember watching the ‘Polish August’ and the events in Gdansk in 1980 on TV screens, seeing how non-violence and social reform could change a country for the better and help progress livelihoods of all citizens,” he said.

“The 40th anniversary will be of great significance to the Polish community in Belfast, and it is only right that Belfast City Hall marks the occasion.”

Marta de Zuniga, Director of the Polish Cultural Institute said: “I am thrilled to see Belfast’s main civic and cultural buildings being used to mark and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the historic Solidarity movement in Poland.

“Solidarity helped overcome the artificial division of Europe into spheres of influence after the end of the Second World War, and it is especially fitting that Belfast joins in its message of people working together to remove barriers.”