Introduction

The heart of CNR muraling in Belfast is perhaps the middle Falls. Included in this stretch are the wall at Fallswater Street (next to what is now Cultúrlann), the two walls at Beechmount Avenue, and about eight walls in or near the Rock streets (for which see the Map).

The wall at the top of Fallswater Street was the site of Smash H Block (1981); We Must Grow Tough (1981); Women In Armed Struggle (1983); Freedom-Justice-Peace (1987); Ballyseedy-Gibraltar (1988); Féile An Phobail (19??); Foundation Stones (1994); An Gorta Mor along with There Was No Famine (1995); Llibertat-Saoirse along with Biko – Mandela (1997); Trimble The Waster (1999). The wall next to it (at the top of Iveagh Parade) was the site of Stop The Torture In H-Block (1981?-1986); 8531 Unemployed; Free The POWs; Beechmount POWs (1996-1997), Fáilte Á La West Belfast Fiesta (1997). Both walls were then obscured by new buildings and were no longer used for murals.

The other Falls-Beechmount corner, across the street from the one we focus on here, is a two-storey gable which, apart from the first mural in 1981 James Connolly, has always had impressively large murals that have changed only a few times over the decades – For A New Ireland (1983); Revolution (~1986); 1916-1990 Free Ireland (1990, repainted 1993); Éirí Amach na Cásca (2006, repainted 2009). These have been reproduced in countless photographs and easily catch the eye of tourists.

The smaller wall lacks the scale and the fame and the fixedness of its big brother but is all the more interesting for that. The art is crammed between a window and a side door; the art has often had to compete with election posters and commercial billboards; not all of the works have been murals – sometimes it has been the site of graffiti for memorial rallies and electoral candidates; the art has changed frequently to suit the topic of the moment or year. It thus presents a more detailed view of republican issues and anniversaries, with a more internal audience, namely the people of Beechmount and Iveagh.

The wall has been painted at least 22 times (between 1981 and 2019) and is the most frequently painted wall in Belfast and therefore probably in the world (putting aside Free Derry Corner‘s modifications).

Images

Three Flags
1981(M00222)

Cross & Flags
1981(M00220. As C00648 shows there were posters – mostly of hunger strikers – in the cross.)

PLO-IRA
1982(M00587 | T00002 T00055)

Vote Maskey+Parliament Is Political Wing of British Army
1983
C00434

IRA Unit In Action, based on a poster “Guerilla Days In Ireland” by a Short Strand artist, c. 1983. “Painted by Beechmount & Iveagh Sinn Féin Youth Dept”
(1984 X05534 Image by Bill Rolston, used by permission.)

Vote Morrison (with hunger strike commemoration rally visible underneath)
1984
C00409 (who gives 1989 as the date)

“Warning: Touting can seriously damage your health”
(1986 X05533 Image by Bill Rolston (who dates it as 1986), used by permission. See also Le Garsmeur at Alamy (who dates it as 1983).)

ANC (1986)
1986 1987 1988 (repainted in 1988?)
(M00435 (1987) (1988) | D00002 | T00072)

Head/Skull
1990(M00836 | T00040)

The Weaponry Has Changed
1991 1992 1993(M01067)

Permanently
1994 1995(M01213 D00205 X09141)

Beechmount POWs
1997 (was ?previously? across the Falls but moved for 1997 Féile mural)(M01362)

Disband The RUC
1999
(D00821 C01287 M02044)

Web Of Collusion (brown, blue)
2000
(The brown version – which was probably first – is shown in A910. The blue version is shown in C00242.)

Lark
2001
(M01459 | second post | T00339 | C01286 | J0708)

Collusion! Collusion!
2003
(M01982) (J1871)

CIRA-2
(M02283)

2005 Shankill Road bomber Seán Kelly was returned to prison for a month on suspicion of rioting.
(M02553)

Light A Candle In Their Memory
2006
(M02895 | D01557)

Hunger Strikers mosaics
2006 2007 2008(2006 M03279 | 2008 M04488)

Fianna Éireann 100
2009-04 2010 2011 (‘H 30th’ added 2011; for the original, see M04950) 2012
(X00460 | M06609 | D01784 | D02062 | D02359 | T00522 | T00722)

Cumann na mBan 100
2014-03 2015 2016
(X01753 and second post)

First Dáil
2019
(X06538)

Executed
2022

(X10001 T00804 T00805 T00806. Alongside Belfast Butchery.)

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