CNR

Óglach Bobby Sands

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Óglach Bobby Sands 9th March 1954 – 5th May 1981”. Sands was the first of the ten IRA and INLA prisoners to die in the second hunger strike. For the 44th anniversary of his death, a statue was unveiled in Twinbrook, near the Sands family home and next to the memorial garden in Gardenmore Road (Peter Moloney Collection).

The statue was created by Packy Adams (Belfast Media | Irish News) and appears to be based on the photographs by Gérard Harlay – discovered in 2019 – of Sands carrying a United Irishmen flag in a march that took place a few months before his (final) arrest in 1976 (Bobby Sands Trust). The hair is also reminiscent of Wolfe Tone. The new statue (which does not have planning permission) has a built-in flag-pole, to which an Irish Tricolour was added for the launch on May 4th.

There is also a free-standing information board about Sands at the other end of Jasmine Corner, part of the Colin Heritage Trail.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15679 X15677 X15678 X15385
X15687 X15688

Jim McCabe

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Jim McCabe, “life-long campaigner for truth and justice” after his wife Norah was killed by a plastic bullet in 1981, returns to the “International Wall” (Visual History) on Divis Street. The original mural – from a few months after his death in January 2023 – was replaced by A Window To A Free Country, one of the Palestinian-inspired murals. This new version replaces The Land Is Ours.

“In memory of all the innocent victims murdered and seriously injured by British Crown forces.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15614 X15615 [X15673]

Policing

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The PSNI has arrested and charged almost twice as many ‘Catholics’ than ‘Protestants’ in recent years. Degrading spit hoods used 2.5 times more on ‘Catholics’ than ‘Protestants’. There is nothing ‘normal’ about the PSNI”.

This Lasaır Dhearg (web) tarp was mounted on the hoarding around Casement Park in Andersonstown and was quickly removed. (See Build Casement Now!) Below is a stencil with the same message on the Falls Road.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15617 X15659

Seasaımıd Le Kneecap

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“We stand with Kneecap” – Kneecap have announced a ten-date November tour of Scotland, Wales, and England, adding on to a jam-packed schedule of upcoming gigs that includes a string of European festivals and a tour of the United States. (The trio’s full schedule can be found at their web-site.) In between the France and Belgium dates, on August 20th, Lıam Óg Ó hAnnaıdh will make a different kind of appearance, in court, to face terrorism charges stemming from his display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig.

This tarp is on the Felons’ Club/Cumann Na Méırleach Poblachtach Éıreannach, replacing Seas Leıs An Phalaıstín. The ‘Kneecap Balaclava’ is for sale nearby, while the stencil is in the middle Falls.

For a Kneecap chocolate bar, see Seas Le Kneecap. See also Free Palestine/Victory To Kneecap.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15654 X15652

Republican Youth Land

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“This is republican youth land! Be happy! GGRY” This is a more ambitious piece of graffiti, at least in terms of scaling the building, when compared to 2023’s GGRY on the lower wall. (“GGRY” is “Glengormley Republican Youth”.)

With bonus “Nazis out!” graffiti on a litter bin at the Valley leisure centre.

Church Road, Glengormley

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Ronan Woods
X15471 X15472

The Ringmaster

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Andersonstown boxer Anto “The Apache” Cacace (ig) successfully defended his IBO super-featherweight title on May 10th, defeating Leigh Wood of (and in) Nottingham (BBC). Cacace originally won the title in May last year (2024) and was honoured by a mural in South Link.

This commercial hoarding depicts Cacace as the godfather, perhaps a reference to his father’s Italian heritage (DAZN) and/or to Joel Cacace of the Colombo mafia in New York (WP).

Whiterock Road, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15461

Republican Prisoners Still Exist!

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Support republican political prisoners” in “Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank”. IRPWA (web) board in Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast. For a close-up of the Saoradh call to commemorate the Easter Rising, see the Paddy Duffy collection.

See also: the same message on Divis Street, west Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15459

To The People Of Ireland

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The central space in Ardoyne’s Easter Rising centenary wall, combining stencils of the signatories to the Proclamation around a tarp of the document (see In Commemoration Of 1916) has been empty – except for some electoral signs – since 2019’s board marking the centenary of Sınn Féın (see Still The People Spoke). This new tarp returns to the Proclamation and Easter lily and matches the frame of signatories once more.

The last full mural on the wall fell down in 2014 and there does not appear to have been the energy to paint another full mural since then – but perhaps the fading paint around Clarke and Connolly will provoke a complete re-do.

For the stone in the right-hand corner, see the Peter Moloney collection.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15458

Greenwashing Against Climate

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Nestlé logo features a bird feeding its young in a nest but in this sticker the tree is dead and the bird has fallen to the ground. The QR code at the centre of the sticker takes one to a Swiss site (orghan.ch) making the case (in German) that “Nestlé exploits & kills for profit. A good product is a free product. Greenwashing against climate.”.

Falls Road, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15454

The Man Who Saved Barcelona

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Don Patricio/Patrick O’Connell mural at the bottom of the Whiterock Road was refreshed for Féıle 2024. The major change is in the middle of the mural, where Lionel Messi – who went to Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 and then to Inter Miami in 2023 – has been replaced by current stars Aitana Bonmatí and Lamine Yamal. (A modern soccer-ball replaces the leather ball of the original mural, patches have been added to O’Connell’s jacket, and the FAI trophy and the large Cup Winner’s medal has been removed to make room for Bonmatí.) The new mural was relaunched on August 2nd, 2024, with an address by the director of the FC Barcelona museum at Camp Nou (Belfast Media).

For more – on O’Connell’s career as a player and manager, the emblems in the stands, and the headlines on the newspaper – see From Celtic Park To Barcelona.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15450 X15449