CNR

Dense

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Confusion over what to do with vacant lots along the south side of Carrick Hill continues. The corner site at the junction with Donegall Street was part of the ‘Northside’ plans back in 2008 and both it and the Library Street site were earmarked for high-rise student accommodations in 2015. None of those plans came to fruition and social housing was approved in 2018 (SF). But now the dispute is over whether to build two-storey family homes or high-rise apartments (which is apparently the preference of the current minister for Infrastructure, the SDLP’s Nichola Mallon (Irish News)). The board was erected by the Carrick Hill Residents Association at the Library Street site.

Update Jan 2021

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Don’t Emigrate – Agitate

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Emigration of Irish nations outstripped their returning counterparts for most of the 2010 but stabilised in 2018 (Irish Times). (Migration data for NI nationals could not be found.) This Connolly Youth Movement (cym.ie | ig | tw account currently suspended) sticker on Northumberland Street street sign encourages young people to stay and work for change at home.

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Big Love, Belfast

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“Grá mór” [lots of love] on an electrical box in Ardmoulin Street. Artist unknown.

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Cultúr, Teanga, Comhphobaıl

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“By night and by day, I ever, ever pray/While lonely my life flows on/To see our flag unfurled/And my true love [to] enfold/In the valley of Slievenamon.” The lyrics are the final lines of The Valley Of Slievenamon, written by Charles J Kickham “fenian, IRB, poet, novelist, author” and much loved in Tipperary. The heroic hurler, however, is Cú Chulainn (rather than the midlands’ Fıonn Mac Cumhaıll). Ardoyne Gaelic games club Cıceam Ard Eoın (tw | Fb) was founded in 1907, 25 years after Kickham’s death.

See previously: (2008) Ard Eoın Kickhams | (2015) The Heart Of Our Community one | two. Also Stronger Together.

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Falls Road Massacre

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Muralist Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly (whose catalogue of work can be seen in a separate site) and others from Gael Force Art (Fb) have mounted a three-piece memorial for the centenary of the Falls Road Massacre in which four people were killed – one of them being Mo Chara’s great uncle Jimmy Shields – in a 5-minute shooting spree by a “special patrol” on the night of the funerals of three men killed by the ‘RIC Murder Gang’ (see the 2007 post). For more background see the memorial’s Facebook page.

More than 500 people were killed in Belfast from 1920 to 1922; for details and their locations see The Social Geography Of Violence During The Belfast Troubles.

“These four innocent local men were murdered by an RIC/British Army death squad near this spot in [September 28th] 1920: James Shields, William Teer, Robert Gordon, Thomas Barkley.” With perhaps the first appearance of a hashtag on a plaque: #fallsroadmassacre1920

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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End British Internment

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IRPWA board in Ardoyne in support of Saoradh’s Ciarán “Zack” Smyth who has been in Maghaberry since late March, after having his license revoked (RN). For more information and links, see Free Zack Smyth.

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“F” For Fascist

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“Only fascists stand with ‘Soldier F’.” Lasaır Dhearg (web) sticker on the Falls Road about the trial of an anonymous British Army soldier charged with the deaths of James Wray and William McKinney on Bloody Sunday.

At the end of September (2020) the Public Prosecution Service ruled that none of the other paratroopers would be charged in connection with the 14 deaths (BBC).

In the sticker, the Nazi swastika has been added to the emblem of the paratroopers, making it look very much like the emblem of the Nazi army.

Previously: Stop The Witch Hunt

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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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Carrick Hill Supports Fiona

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It is 15 weeks since Noah Donohoe left home heading for Cave Hill only to end up dead in a north Belfast storm drain. Support for his mother Fiona and the #RememberMyNoah campaign has been widespread, including this tarp in Carrick Hill.

See previously: #RememberMyNoah | A Hunger For Knowledge | Into The Wide Blue Yonder | A Heart In A Heart | Justice For Noah

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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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Socialism Is Neither Protestant Nor Catholic

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“Socialism is neither Protestant nor Catholic, Christian nor Freethinker, Buddhist, Mahometan, nor Jews [sic]. It is only human. We of the Socialist working class realise that as we suffer together we must work together that we may enjoy together. We reject the firebrand of capitalist warfare and offer you the olive leaf of brotherhood and justice to and for all.” From part 6 of Connolly’s Labour, Nationality And Religion in 1910. The mural is in Beechview Park, across the street from Áras Uí Chonghaile/James Connolly Visitor Centre.

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Are You On The Side Of The 2020 Hunger Strikers?

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Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, Portlaoise, and Hydebank [now officially Hydebank Wood] went on hunger strike in solidarity with Dr Issam Hijjawi-Bassalat, a Palestinian national residing in Edinburgh, who was arrested in the August swoop that also saw nine Saoradh members arrested in connection with the New IRA. Hijjawi attended one of the meetings set up by (MI5 agent) Dennis McFadden in July. Hijjawi went on hunger strike on September 16th in protest and his solitary confinement and was yesterday (2020-09-28) moved into the republican wing at Maghaberry and the hunger strikes ended. (IRPWA | Irish News | Samidoun | Republican News)

The images in today’s post show IRPWA support for the hunger strikes on Free Derry Corner.

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Copyright © 2020 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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