This dissertation in the area of Language and Social Interaction (LSI) study, approved by the University of Oklahoma Institutional Review Board (IRB) as #2003-233, investigates language use and cultural identity of non-combatants in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The study uses multiple methods of investigation in the form of 17 open-ended interviews, minor participant observation, semiotic analysis of 80 photographs of political murals, and quantitative content analysis of 46 newspapers to show that individuals carefully choose labels for the people and places of Northern Ireland, create murals that mark identity and territory, and (re)present such symbols in the printed news media.