Month: Aug 2021

The Desire For Freedom

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The Falls Commemoration Committee (Fb) organises an annual commemoration for IRA D company volunteers from Divis and the lower Falls (as well as special events for the fiftieth anniversary of the Falls Curfew in 2020). The fourteen local volunteers are portrayed in a group above St Peter’s. They include the five volunteers who died in 1972 and were depicted in a mural previously at this spot.

“‘They won’t break me because the desire for [freedom and the] freedom of the Irish people is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon’ – Bobby Sands [March 17th, 1981]” Originally in Irish: “Ní bhrısfıdh sıad mé mar tá an fonn saoırse, agus saoırse mhuıntır na hÉıreann, ı mo chroí. Tıocfaıdh lá éıgın nuaır a bheıdh an fonn saoırse seo le taıspeáınt ag daoıne go léır na hÉıreann. Ansın tchífıdh [chífidh] muıd éırí na gealaí.”

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Hands Across The Water

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Another tribute to Scottish friends: “Millsy our brother, always be in our hearts. Springburn Derry (Fb)”. Please get in touch if you have any information about “Millsy”, from Springburn in Glasgow, Scotland and supporter of Rangers (the north stand at Ibrox is named after Sandy Jardine, star player for Rangers (and Scotland) in the 1970s (WP)).

Shankill Road at Mountjoy Street

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A variation on Leo Boyd’s (web) Freshly Made For You! (and Winding Up The Peelers) outside Artcetera (web | ig | Fb) (formerly the Red Barn Gallery) off Rosemary Street, Belfast, with two other pieces by unknown artists (replacing Turning Towards The Sun). (The trio is soon joined by Wee Nuls’s Medusa.)

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Boab Kerr

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UVF Scottish Brigade Volunteer Scott “Boab” Kerr, from the Govan area of Glasgow and Sons Of The Somme FB (Fb), died in 2015 and is remembered with a plaque on the corner of Beechfield Street in east Belfast.

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Aontacht Lenár Lınn

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“Am le haontacht na hÉıreann” [Time for Irish unity]. Between stints in prison in 1976, Bobby Sands carried a green harp flag – symbol of Ireland and in particular of the United Irishmen – in an August march to protest the withdrawal of political status (Gérard Harlay/Bobby Sands Trust). He is shown here marching under the #TimeForUnity message on Slıabh Dubh in the campaign for a border poll and Irish unity “lenár lınn”/”in our time” (Fb | tw).

See also: Reıfreann Anois | Time For Irish Unity

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Broken Home

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“This home supports a pay rise for NHS heroes”. Nurses in Northern Ireland are waiting for a pay proposal from minister Robin Swann (BBC | Nursing Times). The rise for NHS staff in Scotland is 4% and in England and Wales 3%, up from a previously announced 1% (BBC). The doorway is in Tower Street, in east Belfast.

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