Month: Aug 2015

Respect Equality

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2015-08-09 RespectEquality+

The People Before Profit Alliance is an all-Ireland political party closely related to the Socialist Workers Party. In the north, candidate Gerry Carroll was elected to Belfast City Council in 2014, representing Black Mountain. Gay rights does not seem to form an explicit part of the platform, but the mural above, featuring a heart with the rainbow colours, appeared on Divis St in time for the Pride parade on August 1st.

See also: Cherish from Sınn Féın

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Apprentice Boys

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2015-08-05 Conningham+

On December 7th, 1688, thirteen apprentice boys grabbed the keys to Derry city and locked the gates against the on-coming Jacobite Redshanks. Their names were William Cairnes, Henry Campsie, John Conningham (also given as Coningham), Alexander Cunningham, William Crookshanks, Samuel Harvy, Samuel Hunt, Alexander Irwin, Robert Morison, Robert Sherrard, Daniel Sherrard, James Spike, James Steward and they each have a small plaque in the Fountain area.

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Imagine

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This mural of a skateboarder emerging from a girl’s reading replaced a Red Hand Commando mural (see D01242) at the Brooklands Road entrance to the Ballybeen estate in the mid 2000s. The lettering from the former mural is beginning to bleed through – above the window can be seen “Ballybeen [C Company]” and below it, “Ulster’s Elite”.

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The Thirtieth Of January 1972

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2015-08-07 GoyaDerry+

Above is a local interpretation of Robert Ballagh’s 1970 rendering of Goya’s The Third Of May 1808 in Glenfada Park, Derry/Doıre, site of four deaths on Bloody Sunday, 1972.

The original commemorates Spanish resistance to the forces of Napoleon (WP). For this Derry version, features from the city’s skyline – the Guildhall, St. Columb’s Cathedral, and an intact Governor Walker column – have replaced the original’s outline of Madrid, as well as an insignia of the Paras on the arm of a soldier. 

For Ballagh’s original (“1970”) version and a description and video of the launch see bloodysundaymarch.org. Here is an Eamonn McCann lecture on the political history of the Goya painting. Until recently, the piece above was adjacent to a version of Picasso’s Guernica.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02720 Jim Wray, William McKinney, Gerard McKinney, Gerard Donaghy paratroop regiment

The High Meadow

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2015-07-28 ClonardBoardWide+

As the map below shows, the area between the Shankill and the Falls roads in 1789 was largely undeveloped and perhaps titles such as “Cluain Ard” (“Clonard”) were descriptions as well as names. The ‘White Linen Hall’ – on the site of the current City Hall – had been completed the year before. St. Mary’s was the first Catholic church in Belfast. Wikipedia reports that on the day of its first mass, May 30th, 1784, “the mostly Presbyterian 1st Belfast Volunteer Company paraded to the chapel yard and gave the parish priest a guard of honour, with many of the Protestants of Belfast also present and sharing the event”. (WP) The map also shows a series of ponds connected to the nearby Flush. A close-up of the board is below.

2015-07-28 ClonardBoard+

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1789BelfastMap
1789 map of Belfast by James Lawson.

Stigmata

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2015-07-28 RedHandFlagpole+

Even the flagpole-holders indicate their allegiance: a red hand of Ulster pole bracket in the Village, south Belfast.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Metalmorphosis

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2015-08-06 BonzaiSpaceLizard+

Here’s Space Lizard by Mark Bodé and (Dave) Bonzai, part of the Release The Pressure street art festival in London-/Derry on July 25th and 26th.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02719 X02713 liquid metal portal sun

Cherish

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2015-08-04 Cherish+

The 1916 Proclamation Of Irish Republic includes the sentence “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.” At the time, it had a political meaning, but it has since been pressed into service by advocates of children’s right and now, in the board above, by supporters of gay rights. James Connolly (leader of the Irish Citizen Army) and the text of the declaration are shown against a backdrop of the gay pride rainbow flag. Launched 2015-07-31

02779 2015-08-19 GlenRdWide+

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X02714 X02779 ceartas anois truth ballymurphy massacre springhill pearse jordan belfast IRSP commemoration parade britain out of ireland

How Many Kids Have You Killed To-Day?

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2015-08-04 IsraelUSA+

A question for Israel and the USA in Brucevale Park, based on the anti-Vietnam-war song/chant “Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids have you killed today?“

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X02715 lyndon baines johnson Ali Saad Dawabsheh

The Vigil

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“Felons presents an exciting new drama by Roseleen Walsh [web]– The Vigil – sixty one years apart yet both [Kieran Doherty 1981 and Terence MacSwiney 1920] died on hunger strike for the cause of Ireland.” The play was produced for Féile An Phobail (web). Walsh’s introduction and excerpts from the play are available on youtube.

Falls Road, Belfast, on the railings around the site of the former RUC barracks.

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