“Fáılte go dtí Marrowbone youth club [club óıge Mhachaıre Bothaın (Fb)] – better our community by working together.” The verbiage is a mix of Irish and English and the imagery is a mix of youth activities and … a minion.
The previous mural – which included Cliftonville (soccer) and Antrim (GAA) emblems – was seen previously in 2013 and in 2021.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12944 [X12945] X12946 [X12947] X12948 X12949 X12950
X07820
The number is arrived at by aggregating the days served by republican prisoners in Maghaberry, Hydebank, and Portlaoise (IRPWA – page contains images of all the locations in which this board was mounted).
Braemar Street, west Belfast.
“End internment by remand! 11000 days and counting. Bail denied. Seán Farrell, Davy Jordan, Kevin Murphy, Nick Donnelly, Charlie Love, Shea Reynolds, Ciaran Maguire, Gary Hayden, Sean Walsh, Damien McLaughlin, Sharon Jordan, Mandy Duffy.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12939 X12938
Ireland’s most famous export is not its music – including Fontaines D.C. (web) – or its stout – including Guinness – but its people, about 10 million of them since 1800 (WP). The youngster in this new mural by Dublin artist ACHES (ig) is torn in different directions.
Queen’s Quay, Derry.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
X12878 X12876 X12877
What is now Coláıste Feırste began life as Meánscoıl Feırste in 1991, teaching a group of nine students a curriculum inspired by Patrick Pearse (discussed previously in An Tusa An Chéad Laoch Eıle?) and based in Cultúrlann MacAdam-Ó Fıaıch (Cultúrlann). It moved to Beechmount in 1998 and in 2018 expanded into new buildings that were meant to accommodate 600 pupils (Doherty Architects), which it has now exceeded (BBC) as it enters its thirty-third year in existence.
The theme of preserving and promoting the Irish language occurs in several places in the mural: next to Pearse we see his saying, “Máırtín Ó Chadháın ” [a land without a language [is] a land without a soul], in the classroom scene we have “Labhaır í agus maırfıdh sí” [speak it and it will endure], and finally we see the Dream Dearg protesting for an Irish-Language Act (see previously #AchtAnoıs).
The in-progress images included below among completed detailed shots date from May 6th and 20th.
Giant’s Foot/Beechview Park. Replaces the short-lived mural of Olympians, seen in Sporting Giants.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
ar dheıs X12795 [X12393] X12276
Mac Pıaraıs & cultúrlann X12277 [X12278]
ceol X12279 X12392
peıl X12797
ıománaíocht X12798
rang X12799 [X12391] [T02777]
Dream Dearg X12280 X12281
ar clé X12796
London social-worker Paddy McCarthy took a job at the Ballymurphy Tenants’ Association in west Belfast in 1970. On August 11th, 1971, he tried to broker a ceasefire and evacuation of children from Ballymurphy, where a curfew had been imposed after the introduction of internment. He carried a Red Cross flag but was shot in the hand. He regrouped and then tried to distribute milk to families, but was stopped by two soldiers who either fired over his head or put an unloaded gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. He died of a heart attack. (Belfast Media | WP | Ballymurphy Massacre | Ballymurphy And The Irish War, written by one of McCarthy’s successors, Ciarán De Baróid, who came to work for the BTA in 1972 – Belfast Media)
The memorial plaque is in Ballymurphy Road, as is the graffiti below: “OIRA [-] Beware hoods.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12574 X12573
“Population of the Six Counties: 1,800,000. Living in poverty: 313,000. Children in poverty: 100,000.”
The source for the statistics presented might be the Department Of Communites, which gives statistics for 2021-2022; the Rowntree foundation has a report on 2022 poverty levels. No source is given here or on the campaign’s web page at Lasaır Dhearg (web | tw).
Glenveagh Drive; with a bonus image of on old Marian Price stencil in nearby Carrigart Avenue.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12801 X12800
“Solidarity with the French riots against racism & police – justice for Nahel!” 17 year-old Nahel Merzouk was shot and killed on June 27th by a motor-cycle policeman in Nanterre, France. The scope of use of firearms by police was expanded in 2017 to include dangerous drivers who refused to stop; Merzouk was at the wheel of a Mercedes that had twice failed to stop and (according to police) was putting others in danger. Police specifically alleged that the car, after the second stop, was driving towards the officer; video evidence later disproved this. This cover-up, combined with long-running discontent over the use of deadly force by police, led to six nights of rioting in which two people were killed, more than 3,000 people arrested, and 800 police injured. (BBC includes video | Independent | WP)
Divis Street, Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12718
Here are two panels from the front yard of Gaelscoıl An Lonnáın (which recently acquired a new mural).
Above, Lear’s four children are turned into long-living, singing swans by their jealous step-mother Aoıfe, and are restored 900 years later to human form by the pealing of a chapel bell and the touch of a Christian monk. For more on the myth, see The Children Of Lear (and also the story of the mermaid Lí Ban in Sea-Born).
Below, a compilation of local landmarks: Broadway cinema (see At The Pictures), St Peter’s pro-cathedral (see Mysterious Ways), Conway mill (see The Mill), the Corporation Public Baths (and swimming pool), later the Falls Road Public Baths, and here called “The Falls Swimming Baths” (for a reminiscence of the baths, see Belfast History), and the fountain in Dunville Park. The cinema is no more; the baths have been replaced by a leisure centre; the mill stands but functions as a cultural centre.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12564 X12563
Norah McCabe died on July 9th, 1981, a day after being struck in the back of the head by a plastic bullet. The RUC claimed that they fired at a petrol bomber but footage from a Canadian TV crew on the Falls Road showed this to be false (Belfast Media).
Her husband Jim was involved in the “United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets” (web) founded in 1985 by Groves & Reilly. He died in January (2023) and mural in his memory was launched yesterday on Divis Street – see Jim McCabe.
There is a plaque and a memorial to McCabe at the spot where she was struck in the old Linden Street. These posters are at the family home on the Springfield Road.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12154
“Ní coırpıgh sınne! Éıreannaıgh sınne! [we are not criminals; we are Irish people] “There is that much to be done that no select or small portion of people can do; only the greater mass of the Irish nation will ensure the achievement of a socialist republic, and this can only be done by hard work and sacrifice.” – Bobby Sands [Hunger strike diary, March 14th, 1981]” With photographs of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers.
Falcarragh Drive, Lenadoon, Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X14119
Extramural Activity 