A Word Of Conjure With

2015-04-14 ConjureWith+

James Connolly was concerned not just with the political independence of Ireland but its economic independence: both political and economic liberty were required in order for the human being to live freely. The quote in the image above comes from Connolly’s 1897 essay “Socialism & Nationalism”. The economic context is clear when we read a little more broadly:

“To the tenant farmer, ground between landlordism on the one hand and American competition on the other, as between the upper and the nether millstone; to the wage-workers in the towns, suffering from the exactions of the slave-driving capitalist to the agricultural labourer, toiling away his life for a wage barely sufficient to keep body and soul together; in fact to every one of the toiling millions upon whose misery the outwardly-splendid fabric of our modern civilisation is reared, the Irish Republic might be made a word to conjure with – a rallying point for the disaffected, a haven for the oppressed, a point of departure for the Socialist, enthusiastic in the cause of human freedom.” (marxists.org)

Takes the place of Padraig Pearse’s “The fools, the fools …

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02581 5th june 1868 – 12th may 1916

Release Leonard Peltier

“RNU call for the release of Leonard Peltier – http://www.freeleonard.org“. The lower left-hand panel of the RNU spot on Northumberland Street is serving as a changeable notice-board – it was previously The Popular Front.

Peltier has been in jail since 1977, convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975 and sentenced to two life-sentences (WP).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03312

Facelift

2015-04-16 SandsFull+

The Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street has been given a facelift, including the blocking-up of a vent on Sands’s left cheek. Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell have been added in place of the 1798 medallions on each side. On the side-wall are Sean McCaughey, ten doves representing the 1981 hunger-strikers, and Long Kesh. Aerosol‘s accordion-player stencil has been also been retained.

For a full history of the wall, see the Bobby Sands (Sevastopol Street) Visual History page.

2015-04-16 SandsSide+

2015-04-16 SandsPlaque+

Ag sráıd Sevastopol cuımhnıtear ar Bobby Sands ı múrmhaısıú a aithnıtear ar fud an domhaın. Ba scrıbhneoır, file, réabhlóıdí agus díograıseoır Gaeılge é Sands. Fuaır sé bas 5 Bealtaıne 1981 tar éıs 66 lá ar stailc ocraıs. As ucht na dıograıse a thaıspeáın Sands agus a chomhchımí ı leıth fhoglaım na teanga faoı choınníollacha uafásacha Bhlocanna H na Ceıse Fada, spreagadh glúın úr chun dul ı mbun athghabháıl na Gaeılge.

Here at Sevastopol Street Bobby Sands is remembered in a mural which has become world-renowned. Sands, a writer, poet, revolutionary and Gaelic enthusiast, died on May 5th 1981 after 66 days on hunger strike. Sands and his fellow prisoners inspired a new generation to reclaim the Irish language enthusing them by the huge efforts they put into learning Irish in the horrendous conditions on the H Blocks of Long Kesh.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02586 X02588 X02587 everyone Republican or otherwise has their own particular role to play our revenge will be the laughter of our children joe mcdonnell i’ll wear no convicts uniform nor meakly meekly serve my time that Britain might make Irelands fight 800 years of crime ira volunteer

The Right To Be Happy

2014-12-11 NewLodge1900+

The life of a child in the New Lodge of the 1900s was one of poverty, disease, mill work, and being displaced by German bombers in 1941, with only a lamppost swing and marbles for relief. (It was also in black-and-white.) The struggle for young people’s rights “to be loved, to family life, to freedom of expression, to life, to your own beliefs, not to be bullied, to be safe from war, to privacy, to play, to be happy” continues in the panels on the right-hand side (for a close-up, see Young People’s Rights).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02423 tom mcelwee mickey devine linen tram irish news bronchitis

First Movement

2014-08-08 MarketsFiacc+

Patrick O’Connor was born on this day in 1924 on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraıc Fıacc (“fıach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:

Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind
Sift on far-off Ards
Drift hazily …
I was born on such a morning
Smelling of the bone yards
The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs
The wayward storm birds
And to the east where morning is, the sea
And to the west where evening is, the sea
Threatening with danger
And it would always darken suddenly

Some of Fıacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. There are two videos below. The first is an interview with NVTv’s Bernard Conlon; the second is of a reception in Belfast City Hall.

X09071 2022-02-14 Fiacc d

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02057 [X09070] X09071 1929

The Human Condition

2015-03-14 RightsChildren+

“The way a society treats children reflects not only its qualities of compassion & protective caring but also its sense of justice, its commitment to the future & its urge to enhance the human condition for coming generations.” Words by the United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez De Cuellar in 1987 inscribed on a mural by Margaret McCann and Andrea Redmond in Dunlewey Street in Clonard.

2015-03-14 RightsChildrenQuote+

2015-03-14 RightsChildrenSig+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Extramural Activity
X02548 X02549 X02550 rainbow mountains duck flying “1/4 of W. Belfast is under 15. 12 of 16 most deprived wards in Belfast are in W. B.” dolmen races children

Vótaí Do Gach Saoránach Éıreannach

“Paul Maskey supports votes for ALL Irish citizens.” Eligibility for voting in the Presidential election is based on eligibility for voting in Dáıl elections, which requires being a resident in a Dáıl constituency. As such, non-residents – whether in Northern Ireland or elsewhere – are not eligible. The matter was among those take up by the recent Constitutional Convention and a reply from the government is expected by the end of May (WP). Maskey is the incumbent for West Belfast in May’s Westminster election.

On the railings of the shuttered O’Connor’s/Rebel’s Rest, Falls Road, Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05333

Road To Equality

2014-11-25 RoadToEquality+

The road to equality is long and winding and goes through Andersonstown’s Derrin Pass. The junction is full of small board depicting Gaelic games, Irish culture, and landscape drawings, as well as exhortations towards equality — see the corresponding entry in the Peter Moloney Collection.

2014-11-25 RoadToEqualityWide+

2014-11-25 RoadToEqualityWide2+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02398 X02399 X02400

Standing Together Against Racism

2014-06-27 SFAntiRacism+

Anti-racism board on Sınn Féın’s Andersonstown office.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01999

A Welcoming Hand

2015-02-19 SliabhDubhWelcome+

Local residents and children who helped construct the ‘Welcome To Sliabh Dubh’ mosaic at the top of the estate got to include their handprints as part of the artwork, under the direction of Martin McClure (according to a City Council brochure). As the other images (below) show, the area is also host to another mosaic depicting local landmarks from the past such as the Glenalina Bleaching Co and a cottage on the hills of Black Mountain as well as the superhero murals (Wallbusters | Cartoon World | Red-Eye) and Disney murals (some of which have been featured in If The Shoe Fits | Look Behind You! | Magic Mountain).

2015-02-19 SliabhDubhFull+

2015-02-19 SliabhDubhFilm+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Extramural Activity
X02529 X02528 X02527 film denise kate liam aaron john mike patrick