Em Blake / ESTR

What Happened? I’ve been working on this poem for a few months, finally got it finished. It’s long, but there’s a lot to say. I realise there are a lot of people in Ireland doing everything they can, the last verse isn’t a dig at people or meant to make little of what people are doing, more just frustration about how little our government are doing, and the fact we voted the same parties back in. If you voted FF / FG give your head a wobble 💁 Thanks @moirafowley for freezing your arse off to help me record it 🙌

Second Time Painting You. (with subtitles) Thanks @samiaatrashzz for telling us all about your beautiful nieces and their parents. Thanks so much to Atom @southinkdublin for use of the wall and being all around sound. 🎥 @decoy_art Assist @doordore Thanks @moirafowley & @i.is.jess for the poem proof reads. This has to stop. Speak up. Shout louder. Use whatever means you have to help put a stop to this.

Stop the genocide. The images and videos coming out of Palestine at the moment are some of the most upsetting images I have ever seen in my life. The only thing I’ve ever seen on a par with them are the images and videos I saw when I visited Auschwitz. What we are witnessing now is another genocide. World leaders can try to cloak it behind “self defence” all they want but bombing kids is not self defence. This is the intentional targeting of civilians and world leaders are either standing by and watching it happen, or they’re putting their full support behind it. The photo this mural is based on, by Palestinian photographer @mahmoudbassam8 , broke my heart when I saw it. And this is just one, of at least 4000 children, who have been murdered in this genocide. A huge amount of them don’t have family to mourn for them like the woman is in this photo, because their whole familIes were wiped out with them. At least 10,000 Palestinians have been killed. It needs to stop. Cover of The Cranberries ‘Zombie’ by @ali_habz #freepalestine #freegaza #palestine #streetart

What the fork? Saw someone online doing this (can’t remember who?) so thought I’d give it a try since I’ve a million dogs to paint. Painting a bernese at the moment, what other breeds should I paint? #streetart #spraypaint #dogs

For the day that’s in it 🫶 @polliex

My piece from the @brigit_dublin x @minawcollective jam at @christchurchdublin back in February. Spin the brigit spinner to make a wish or for good luck🤞 Cheers for lending me your face @caoimheregan #streetart #spraypaint #brigit

The Lady on the Reformer. For @breathingspacedublin8 🧘 #streetart #spraypaint #dublin

I went into town this morning for a stroll around before all the madness. Took a walk from where I used to live on Power’s Square in The Liberties around town taking in the atmosphere of it all. I wrote this poem as part of my artwork for the @minawcollective x @homeofguinness collab. Our exhibition is now on display in the central atrium of the Guinness Storehouse. Pop along over the next few months to see the artwork of this poem alongside artwork by 11 other members of Minaw Collective. Cheers to @archetype.ie for organising the project 💪 Happy Paddy’s Day to everyone who celebrates ☘️

This is sitting in my drafts since 1st of January but I never got around to posting. With it being the Chinese New Year today I thought I’d post now. Few bits from last year : Top right and bottom left - two Irish musicians absolutely killing it at the moment @cmatbaby & @hozier . Really happy with how both of these turned out, although I did struggle with likeness of the Hozier one for a bit. Some media pages uploaded photos while it was still in progress and looking nothing like him - one of the (sometimes annoying) things that comes with painting in public: you don’t get to share your work when it’s finished and you’re happy with it, you bare all the whole process. This is the first year my poetry is featuring in this. I started writing poetry in 2024 in response to what was happening in Gaza, before that I’d only ever written a few breakup poems. The top left image is from a video of one of my Palestine poems that I wrote in 2025, called What Happened? The bottom right corner is the poster from the first poetry event I was a featured poet at. I performed mostly Palestine poems, with a couple of breakup poems thrown in. I’ve performed at a good few poetry events this year - something I never imagined would be something I’d start to do. Under Hozier is the Catherine Connolly piece I painted before the election. One of the positives about 2025, this legend winning a landslide election and becoming our president 💪 Top middle - Pride is a protest. Something we need to remember now more than ever, when trans and queer rights are under attack and it seems things are going backwards. We will continue to protest. Middle photo is at @minawcollective exhibition last month infront of my paintings, and to the left of that is my piece from the @minawcollective Dublin Fringe jam - a portrait of @polliex . Another positive thing that happened in 2025, and hopefully the reason I won’t be writing any more breakup poems. Bottom middle is my collab with @hollypereira of Khaled and Reem Nabhan. The people of Palestine will always be in my thoughts, my heart and my work. 🇵🇸 Here’s to the year of the horse 🐴

Why are we posting photos of 2016? 🤷 But I suppose I’ll jump on the trend. I had a great time in 2016, painting at loads of festivals and events all around the country. And we still had some of the great arts and culture spots in the Dublin back then. I especially miss The Bernard Shaw and Tivoli Theatre where we had some of the best street art and graff jams over the years. There’s been some good times since 2016, but it’s pretty depressing to see some of the issues that I was painting about back then have only gotten worse. Homelessness, kids getting bombed, the situation in Iran. A lot of shit I could never have even imagined has happened since 2016. But I also think people are becoming more aware of the issues around the world, and how the choices we make can affect them. People are now making conscious choices about where they spend their money and about who they put their support behind. Yeah sure, there was always people who did this before, but it feels like a landslide now, like it’s on a much larger scale. I know I’m more aware things I hadn’t a clue about back then, about companies I gave my money to, and I’m definitely making more conscious choices. It can sometimes feel hard and overwhelming (when SO many big companies are doing really shitty things), but even if you’re only able to make small changes, they add up, if everyone is making small changes they can make a big difference. This didn’t really go where I thought I was going with it when I started writing but yeah, I can feel a shift, and I’m hopeful and optimistic. Throughout all the mad shit that has happened over the last 10 years I’ve seen so much love, solidarity, selflessness and the best of humanity. Shop local. Shop sustainable. Shop anti genocide. Free Palestine. Free Sudan. Free Congo. Free Iran. Fuck billionaires. Fuck the IOF. Fuck ICE. Fuck racism. Fuck AirBnB. Fuck build-to-rent. Fuck Fianna Fáil and fuck Fine Gael too. Be Good.

I wrote this down after watching The Voice of Hind Rajab on Friday evening. An absolutely heartbreaking and important film, that everyone should watch. I had the pleasure of meeting the film’s director @kaoutherbenhania at my mural of Hind before the viewing who, along with the rest of the team behind it did a great job, using the real life recordings of Hind and her cousin Layan to give the viewer an authentic portrayal of the events of that day. I’ve never before went to see a film that, when it ended, the whole audience sat in absolute silence, no one moving right throughout the credits. The film, and the recordings, will stay with me forever. The film is now showing in cinemas in Dublin - the Lighthouse, IFI, Vue and possibly more. Please go see it. Spread the word. Review it online. Help get it the attention it deserves.

I was honoured to meet with the director of The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben Hania and the artist Emma Blake who made the mural seen in the images in the little girl's honour at @bfcdublin ahead of the film screening this evening in Dublin #freepalestine🇵🇸