Ulster Defence Unions

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The UDA/UFF in North Down is divided into two factions, led by Dicky Barry in Newtownards and Dee Stitt in Bangor. Barry’s group is affiliated with the Shankill (west Belfast) UDA and Stitt’s with the East Belfast UDA. According to this BelTel article, their respective numbers are 600 to 150, respectively. For the UDU reference see UDA-UFF-UDF.
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text: X06044 X06045 Glenbrook Rd

Digital Eddie

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As a zombie skeleton, Eddie The Head (here in his guise as a Light Brigade ‘Trooper’) has now lived long enough to enter the digital age of muraling. This is the site of the original Eddie mural – Bond’s Place, London-/Derry, which can be seen on Eddie’s own Visual History page.
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text: X05365 X05364 [X05366] X03800

Getta Warszawskiego

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In November, 1940, approximately 400,000 Polish Jews were confined to an area of 1.3 square miles in northern Warsaw – the Jewish Ghetto – encircled by a wall topped with barbed wire begun in April. From there, they were transported to the concentration camps, as many as 250,000 in the summer of 1942. The uprising of April and May 1943 was met with a German campaign to raze the ghetto, which they succeeded in doing. The wall between two houses on the southern border stands to this day within sight of the skyscrapers of modern Warsaw as a memorial to the dead.
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text: X06037 X06036 X06038 X06039 between Złota and Sienna

An Ní Is Áille

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“Níl an ní is áille – súil ghléigheal [sic] an linbh – slán faoinár gcúram níos mó!” [The most beautiful thing – the sparkling eye of a child/the bright hope of a child – is no longer safe in our care!] This Bóthar Chluanaí/Springfield Road graffiti seems to be a response to the recent vote in the Republic Of Ireland removing the constitutional protection of unborn children (see Yes & No). There has previously been Irish-language graffiti in favour of abortion: Ceart Ginmhillte Anois!
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text: X06033 X06034 [X06035] Buíochas le Mícheál agus Seosamh.

The Crawler

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Adolphe Smith accompanied John Thomson as he travelled around Victorian London in the 1870s, interviewing the subjects in order to provide background for Thomson’s photographs, their combined efforts published as  Street Life In London (pdf from LSE). The entry accompanying this image (in unmodified form) is entitled “The Crawlers“; Smith describes them as “old women reduced by vice and poverty to that degree of wretchedness which destroys even the energy to beg”. The DUP’s Ian Paisley Jr. was recently seen in the House Of Commons apologising for failing to disclose two all-expenses-paid holidays for him and his family to Sri Lanka (Irish Times). His colleagues suspended him for 30 days and withdrew his salary for a month for this failure and for acting as a paid advocate for Sri Lanka’s human rights record (Colombo Telegraph). If 7,543 of his constituents sign a recall petition, he will face re-election. The election poster combining the two is (presumably) by TLO.
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text: X06030

Loyalist Ballymacash

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Ballymacash estate, now part of Lisburn, was once a village around the location of Drayne’s Farm, with a school at the junction of Glenavy, Brokerstown, Ballymacash, and Nettlehill roads. Lisburn.com has a history of the area. Today it is famous for its enormous 11th night bonfire (see Ballymacash Bonfire (also Skull & Crossbones | Death & Life).
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text: X05000

So They Go To Meet The Death

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“The hunger in the ghetto is terrible. Nothing can be bought. … Because of hunger and suffering people go to the Umschlagplatz by themselves. The Judenrat hang posters saying that “volunteers” will be given 3 kg of bread and 1 kg of marmalade. There are some who think it better to die by the bullet than from starvation. So they go to meet the death.”
These crumpled paper figures show Jews being rounded up and the cards bear descriptions of conditions in the ghetto. “What has happened to us, people[?] I watch a policeman dragging a young man as if he were an ox led to slaughter. For a butcher this is a way of making money … But this one fights against his own destruction and you, a Jewish policeman fight to subdue him and drag him toward death – you are a common murderer!”
Bogusław Lustyk (web) is a Polish artist specialising in paintings of horses. This “crush art” piece about the Judenrat and Jewish Police in the Warsaw Ghetto is something of a departure in both theme and medium. Crush art “is a language of expression whose essence is destruction”. Nowy Swiat, Warsaw. (Previously from Warsaw: The People’s Guard | Solidarity?)
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text: X06023 X06022 X06025 X06026 X06027 X06028 X06029

Bad Road Transport

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“Sub-standard BRT discriminates against residents, traders, the disabled and their carers.” The new Belfast Rapid Transport has begun testing (BelfastLive | BelTel) in preparation for the official launch on September 3rd, with routes from the city centre to east and west Belfast and a “Citi” loop. To facilitate the new “Gliders”, a lane of traffic is being dedicated to the service from 7 am to 7 pm (also open to other public transport, cyclists, and taxis). Some are worried about traffic congestion (Talking Retail) and one business in west Belfast has closed because of the loss of street parking (Irish News). Another concern is that the new transport hub is not integrated with BRT – its stops for the West and East routes will be 380 and 500 meters away (BelTel).
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text: X06020 Falls Road

Ulster First Flute

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This vintage piece is next to Linfield Gardens, off Sandy Row. (For the mural all the way back in 1997, see M01330.) Ulster First Flute (Fb) shares the emblem of the other UFF – the Ulster Freedom Fighters – a red first (with or without the drops of blood). See also: Gareth ‘Big Henry’ Morrison on Loyalist Avenue.
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text: X04856

Solidarity?

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Polish trade union Solidarity was formed in August 1981 and the youth section (Solidarność Młodych) in December. June 4th, After years of protests and strikes, 1989 saw elections in which Solidarity was allowed to stand in 35% (= 161) of the seats in the Sejm (lower house) and in all 100 seats of the recreated Senate. It won every seat – except for a single Senate seat, which was won by an independent – leading to the collapse of the Communist government (WP). “Wybraliśmy wolność” – “We chose freedom” – is a celebration this year (2018) including an exhibition of photos from 1989 by Krzysztof Miller. In the years that followed, Solidarity lost its role as a political party and became a standard trade union. At Warsaw Centrum (metro station), ticket kiosks block the historical mural.
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text: X06019