“Our youth, out culture, our community, our future”. Above is a new Ross Road mural celebrating gaelic games (football, hurling, and handball) and in particular Michael Davitt’s (green, white, and gold strip) and Sean MacDermott’s (yellow with green stripe) GAA/CLG clubs. The banner on the low wall is bookended by images of St. Peter’s cathedral and the fountain in Dunville Park, which are detailed below.
A new mural, above, on the International Wall commemorates the fortieth anniversary this year of the ‘Burning Of Long Kesh’ or the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’, which took place on the night of October 15, 1974 and day of the 16th (when British Army units retook the camp).
The most comprehensive account available on-line of the conditions at the camp prior to the riot, the burning, and the battle on the morning of the 16th appears to be this 2004 piece in An Phoblacht by Joe Doherty and Christy Keenan. (For a virtual tour of the camp, see this video. Seamus Keenan’s Over The Wire (on again this month at the Derry Playhouse) attempts to recreate the scene.) Other accounts include those by Ronan Bennett, another inmate, in The Guardian, and by ‘Peter’, a British Army soldier, at Shared Troubles. Here is a brief BBC News report from the 16th.
All accounts mention the use of gas and republican accounts state that CR was used on the morning of the 16th in addition to CS, dropped from helicopters as at the top of the mural. The Guardian, in 2005, confirmed that CR had been authorized for use in controlling riots and was available at the prison. CR is a carcinogen (WP) and in a post on his blog Mairtin Óg Meehan suspects that exposure to CR is a cause of recent cancers among former prisoners. For some statistics based on interviews with prisoners, see this page at Clones Fáılte.
In the lower left corner is a quoted telegram from Fr. Denis Faul, Fr. Raymond Murray: “To international Red Cross … Visited Long Kesh today with others … Request immediate investigation into use of CR gas … sub-human conditions … SOS … come immediately …” 20 Oct. 1974. These two wrote an 80-page report on the conditions at the camp following the event, entitled The Flames Of Long Kesh. See this 1999 An Phoblacht page for an image of the shelters constructed after the battle.
There are two new pieces on the International Wall on Divis Street. The first is the “Free Leonard Peltier” bookmark-sized piece shown in progress, above, and completed, below. (The second is a 40th anniversary piece concerning the burning of Long Kesh. We will have the finished version of that tomorrow. The two together take the place of the 2007 Guernica mural, which was in bad shape after six and a half years.) The text reads, “An honourable man who has spent 10yrs longer in jail than Nelson Mandela”. Peltier has been in jail since 1977, convicted of killing two FBI agents (WP).
A new board has gone up at the junction of the Falls and Glen roads (on the site of the former Andersonstown RUC station) commemorating the death of Pat Finucane (on February 12th, 1989), alleging collusion between the MI5, the UDA, the UDR, and the RUC, and asking for an inquiry.
Geordie Bell was caretaker at the Short Strand community centre, on the other side of this mural, as well as a trade unionist and republican. A piece of art in the Skainos centre is dedicated to his memory (East Belfast Mission).
At the very top of the Whiterock Road, which is to say, half-way up Sliabh Dubh/Black Mountain, there are two shrines (wide shot below). The shrine to the Virgin Mary includes the apocalyptic prayer shown above: Mary, mystical rose, mother of the church, help the holy father of all bishops, all priests and all religious. Intercede for the sorely-pressed church of our times. Pray for the threatened world into which satan’s hot breath is blowing. Draw us all to your immaculate motherly heart. You are the mother of pity. Amen.
Like some of the residents of the Divis area in which this cathedral that bears his name now stands, (Saint) Peter found himself in prison. But the night before his trial, there comes an angel who magically releases his shackles and opens all the doors (Acts 12:3-19). James, on the other hand, is not so fortunate. As a scholar on the WP page notes, why James should die while Peter escapes is a “mystery of divine providence”. Wide shot and info board below.
Another previously-featured scriptural conundrum: Occupy Til I Come (Luke 19:13)
Maıgh Ard/Moyard and New Barnsley are at no risk of flooding, but this mural clearly shows the locals long to be paddling down the slopes of Black Mountain/Slıabh Dubh in canoes and kayaks .
Extramural Activity 