On this today 40 years ago, Francis Hughes, the second of the 1981 hunger strikers, died after 59 days without food. The flag is flying over Groves Reilly Corner in CNR west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08117
Faustina Kowalska was a Polish nun who, from age 19 onwards, claimed to have visions of a suffering Jesus, including one at age 26, of Jesus with red and white rays emanating from his heart and issuing instructions to have the vision painted – it appears here on the right. Kowalska died at age 33 in 1938, of tuberculosis, and was canonized in 2000 (WP). The “H Block Martyrs” pursued a vision of a United Ireland, and likewise died young, of starvation; this is the 40th anniversary of their deaths.
Both Kowalska placards are marked “This image is blessed. Please do not remove.” It is not clear if the hunger striker tarp on the left has also been anointed.
At Groves Reilly Corner.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08119 soared
A “European Citizens’ Initiative” allows for legislation to be put before the European Commission if one million signatures are collected supporting it (europa.eu). Signatures are being collected for a petition to ensure that EU-funded work on Covid-19 is shared worldwide by a group calling themselves “No Profit On Pandemic” and “Right2Cure” (web | tw). The mural takes the place of the vandalised George Floyd mural that was replaced with a place-holder reading “#BLM – back soon”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08103 X07729 [X08104] X08102 [X09039] Divis St
“History of the death of Sean McCartney. This memorial was placed here on Saturday 8th May 2021 to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Vol Sean “Johnny” McCartney of no. 55 Norfolk Street, Falls Road, Belfast. Sean was a volunteer of “D” Company 1st battalion Belfast Brigade Oglaigh na hEireann, when he was killed in action, aged 23 years old. He died while on active service with the 3rd Northern Division, 3rd County Cavan Brigade flying column during the Irish Republican War of Independence. He was shot twice during an ambush and gun battle with the British Army RIC and Black and Tans on Sunday 8th May 1921 on Croghan Mountain at the Lappanbane stretch of the Lappanduff Mountain, Co. Cavan. His body was then mutilated by the Black and Tans. Sean’s body was kicked, stamped on, danced on and tied by the ankles and feet to a Crossley Tender military vehicle and dragged along mountain lanes in an attempt to instill fear in the local Co. Cavan community. The 32 county Irish republic based on the self determination of the Irish people which Sean and many others fought and died for has yet to be achieved. Sean will always be proudly remembered by his extended family circle in Ireland and Canada.” McCartney is buried in Milltown cemetery.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08113 falls road
‘Parliament Buildings’ were not opened until 1932 – 102 years after Stormont Castle and eleven years after partition and the formation of Northern Ireland – but it has largely taken over the meaning of “Stormont” and has become synonymous with the Northern Ireland government in all its forms over the century, a century of – as this Lasaır Dhearg (web) poster in CNR west Belfast has it – “pogroms, sectarianism, job discrimination, police brutality, imprisonment, collusion, housing discrimination, Orange supremacy, torture, internment, special powers, state sponsored death squads, language discrimination, gerrymandering, women’s rights denied, colonialism.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08107 [X08106]
The water has turned into hand sanitiser outside St John’s Catholic church on the Falls Road, opposite the City Cemetery. Admission to services requires booking on-line in advance and wearing a face covering is “strongly recommended by Falls Pastoral Community”.
See also: Freedom Of Religion.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08115 X08116
Babies’ bottles and “dummies” (pacifiers) hang from a tree in the middle of Musgrave Park, next to St Brigid’s GAC pitches, perhaps because Brigid is patron saint of babies, children, and midwives (as well as brewers and poultry farmers) (WP).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07853
The old streets of Divis, including St Peter’s (which goes back to the 1860s) are reflected in the head and shoulders of wide-collared youth.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04589 Milford Ct
Two Saoradh (web) boards in Dungannon. The first (above) commemorates republican hunger strikers beginning with Thomas Ashe in 1917 and the Cork trio of Terrence McSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald, and Joe Murphy in 1920. (For a list of all 22, see RSF.) The second (below) calls on local people not to co-operate with the police or with British military or intelligence: “People Should Not Inform”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 squire93@hotmail.com
X08042 X08043
This is the latest iteration of the “Build Homes Now” mural in Northumberland Street, with an update to the central panel. Previously it was a space for visitors to sign their names in support but now it is a quote from (presumably) someone living in temporary accommodation: “When you’re in a hostel for so long, it starts to feel like a jail. It’s just so irritating and frustrating.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07974
Extramural Activity 