For the centenary of the Easter Rising – a plaque featuring James Connolly with the plough in the stars hovering over the GPO.
Queen’s Parade, Belfast
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05343 [X05342]
1916-2016
Author: Extramural Activity
Woodbourne Village
This new mural of local landmarks — including centrally St. John The Baptist Anglican church — by Fra Maher was erected last November (2015) as part of a re-imaging and re-development project sponsored by the Housing Executive, and joins the art on the Woodbourne police station in brightening up the area — see Only God Can Judge Me.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03274 woodbourne cr wilkommen fáilte maligayang pagdating vitajte welcome witamy welkom bienvenue shalom suffolk stewartstown
I ♥ NLR
There are large-size photographs of former residents posted on the closed-up doors and windows of Stratheden Street in the New Lodge, as the JCBs move in to begin demolition.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03270 X03272 X03271 I love the New Lodge Road sráid shraith éadain
Dancing In The Streets
As Peggy Lee said in the song, “If that’s all there is my friends/Then let’s keep dancing,
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball/If that’s all there is”. These carefree dancers in Belfast’s city centre are by FGB (Francois Got Buffed – web | twitter).
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03259 X03260 union st
RIC At Celtic Park
The image above shows three members of the Royal Irish Constabulary outside Belfast’s Celtic Park in 1912. The event is perhaps a visit by Lord Pirrie, Winston Churchill, and John Redmond to speak in favour of the Home Rule bill at a meeting of the Ulster Liberal Association on February 8th. (You can see at ticket for the event at Decade Of Centenaries.) The meeting was originally to be held in the Ulster Hall, but this was blockaded by Unionist protesters (Irish History). According to one site, Churchill was “nearly lynched” by angry Protestants outside the grounds.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03185 donegall rd
Revolution 2016
The ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition – items from which were shown in Belfast earlier in February (see Revolution 1916) – opened in Dublin this weekend, including two murals (see this An Phoblacht article for one of them). The three painters also painted the mural above for the mini-exhibition in Andersonstown, reproducing the left-hand grouping from Walter Paget’s Birth Of The Irish Republic and putting the proclamation in the background. For Paget’s original oil painting and other version of it, see the painting’s Visual History page.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03278 poblacht na heireann provisional government to the people of ireland
Your Patronising Slogans
Included in the black taxi tours of the murals of west Belfast is a stop along the Cupar Way “peace” line and an invitation to take a black marker and leave one’s mark. A designated name-tag with “Hello my name is …” was even painted for the purpose – see the image below. Many sign their names while others leave an inspiring slogan. In the image above alone you can read “Build legacies, not walls”; “It is easier to take a life than protect a life – decide you for peace!”; “A wish for peace, a hope for understanding, a belief in love”; “Don’t let the darkness consume you”; “Love lives longer than hate”; and so on. Bromides such as these have elicited the commentary in white from a local graffitist.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03202 X03203 fuck you NOTA none of the above TMN
Live Long And Prosper
Actor Leonard Nimoy died on February 27th, 2015. He is best known for the role of Star Trek‘s Spock, a part he played for 49 years. The mural above brings the character from space to the streets, with gold chain and skull hat. “Trek yourself before ya wreck yourself.”
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Do You Care?
James “Jim” Doherty was six years old when he was shot while playing in the front garden of his Turf Lodge home in 1972. Relatives For Justice and the family launched the board shown above at the entrance to the estate last October in order to push for a new inquiry into the death due to the insufficiency of the original investigation and the disappearance of the bullet taken from the body. (Belfast Media Group)
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03281 monagh rd
Ulster’s Fighting Men
This new mural in Ballyduff commemorates the sacrifice of the Ulster Volunteers and Young Citizen Volunteers who fought in WWI and in particular their action in 1916; 2016 is the centenary of the Battle Of The Somme. The flag of (modern) UVF 1st East Antrim battalion flies on either side of the mural.
In the second image: the other new mural on this box was featured in If Needed, We Shall Rise Again
In the third image: The Ultimate Sacrifice
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03282 X03283 X03229 fairview ave lest we forget YCV they paid the ultimate sacrifice present peace now still our hand death no longer stalks the land our weapons are silent and shall remain but if needed we shall rise again hooded gunmen world war one
Extramural Activity 