Pro-Palestine board outside the north Belfast Sınn Féın office on the Antrim Road showing a bloody hand-print and the face of a crying child: “Stad leıs an ghéarleanúınt – ag tacú le cearta na Palaıstíne” : “Stop the persecution – supporting Palestinian rights”. The close-up of the hand and face, below, is taken from an English-language version of the board in Beechmount Street. The third image is of the same board at the Glen Road/Andersonstown Road junction.
An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a Hellfire missile at a young Gazan boy carrying a teddy-bear. This is one of the panels of Gerard “Mo Chara” Kelly‘s (video) new work in Springhill, begun over a month ago and comprising seven panels. This one reproduces a Carlos Latuff (ig) image.
Scots and other residents of Scotland go to the polls on September 18th to vote on independence (WP). The Rock Bar uses the image of Mel Gibson in Braveheart to encourage them to vote “Yes’; recent polls show a slight but persistent preference for a “no” response. In the background of the wide shot (below), the Viva Palestine lettering can still (2014-08-26) be seen on Slıabh Dubh/Black Mountain.
The Craigavon Two – John-Paul Wootton and Brendan McConville – were convicted of the 2009 murder of PSNI Constable Steven Carroll; ‘JTFC2′ or ‘Justice For The Craigavon Two‘ is the group campaigning for their release. The mural above shows two pairs of arms in chains, surrounded by a border of chains.
This is a new board at the Crumlin end of Brompton Park – launched on August 6th by Gerry Kelly and members of the Cliftonville football team – in support of Palestine and Gaza, and in particular protesting the deaths of the four Bakr children on the beach at the port of Gaza on July 16th (see Child Killers). The image of the man carrying the boy is from Reuters. The wide shot, below, shows the “peace” line and union jacks flying at the camp at the Crumlin-Woodvale-Twaddell roundabout.
A young woman dressed in the red, black, and green of Palestine secures her keffiyeh, preparing for defiance rather than expressing her modesty – a detail from a new mural in Balfour Avenue (shown below) with a graffitist in a red-and-white keffiyeh (the colours of the PFLP – see previously: The Popular Front) writing “Free Palestine”. An ‘anti-fascist action’ flag flies in the background.
Previously: Leila Khaled wearing a keffiyeh – traditionally a male garment – in the style of a hijab – a woman’s garment (WP).
Scaırt Amach (“Shout Out”) is a magazine containing articles by republican prisoners in Portlaoise, Maghaberry, and Hydebank prisons. The cover is reproduced in the mural above on the International Wall.
Palestinian icon Leila Khaled, who took part in aeroplane hijackings in 1969 and 1970, is featured in this new mural pro-Gaza mural in Hugo Street. The central portrait is a replication of a famous photo by Eddie Adams (WP), taken after her first skyjacking; she then underwent plastic surgery to disguise her identity prior to the 1970 attempt (WP | see also minute 30 of the 2005 Swedish documentary on Khaled).
The aspect of Cave Hill commonly known as Napoleon’s Nose is shown sheltering the people of Newington, surrounded by heroes and emblems of the past – Bobby Sands, Wolfe Tone, and in the centre, Winifred Carney. This republican mural is both internally directed (at Newington and the New Lodge) and externally, being on the main Antrim Road (Oceanic avenue, on the side of the Sinn Féin office) which is a main artery between the city and points north.
“Ag aontú Caıtlıceach, Protastúnach agus Easaontóırí.” – “Uniting Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter.” In An Argument On Behalf Of The Catholics Of Ireland (1791), Wolfe Tone of the United Irishmen wrote, “To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country, these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman, in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, these were my means.”
In the window of a house on Beechmount Avenue/Ascaıll Ard Na bhFeá the Blessed Virgin Mary is joined by support for Gaza and Palestine and commemorations of the 1981 hunger strikers, particularly Mickey Devine, who died on August 20th.
Extramural Activity 