The Shankill: A Portrait of Pride and Resiliency, Photographs by Julie W. McCarthy

I'm honored to share that my first book, The Shankill, will be released this October and is now available for pre-order.

This deeply personal project began in 2016, when I first traveled to the Shankill Road—an historically Protestant and Loyalist community in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Over five years, I returned annually to photograph and spend time with the people who call it home. What began as a documentation of murals and identity evolved into something more intimate: a portrait of pride, resiliency, and a community living in the long shadow of conflict.

The Shankill explores how memory, tradition, and place are woven into everyday life. While The Troubles may have formally ended with the 1998 peace agreement, this work seeks to illuminate the complexities that persist beneath the surface—and the humanity that endures.