CNR

Shan Van Vocht

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Ethna Carbery (the left-most of the four female figures, who wrote the song Roddy McCorley) and Alice Milligan (with her hand to her face) together founded both The Northern Patriot and The Shan Van Vocht (“the poor, old, woman,” i.e. Ireland), the latter being a monthly socialist newspaper that ran from 1896 until 1899 and included some early writings by James Connolly (pictured on the right of the mural), such as the piece “Socialism And Nationalism” which appeared in The Shan Van Vocht in January, 1897 and from which the quotation on the wall is taken: “If you remove the English army to-morrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic, your efforts would be in vain.” (For the passage in broader context, see (previously) If You Remove The English Army Tomorrow.)

The other two women shown are Elizabeth (seated second) and Nell Corr (standing), Cumann Na mBan members from the Ormeau Road in Belfast, who were in Dublin on the morning of the Rising but headed north. (For more information and a mural depicting the political complexity of their family, see previously The Corrs.)

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Howth Gun-Running

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Nora Connolly in her Cumann Na mBan uniform is the centre point of the ‘Howth Gun-Running’ panel in the new mural on the International Wall. Her sister, Ina, is shown to the right, unloading a rifle from a car outside their home in Glenalina Terrace. About 1,500 rifles were smuggled into Ireland on two boats, 900 of them on the yacht, Asgard, shown left-of-centre with Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice aboard (the latter kept a diary of the trip; extracts are included in this RTÉ History Show video). Asgard docked at Howth on July 26th, 1914. (Here is a tcd.ie collection of images of Asgard’s journey; image #53 is the one reproduced in the mural). The other rifles eventually came ashore two weeks later at Kilcoole. (See this RTÉ article for an account of their tortured journey.)

The vintage Mauser rifles were received by members of Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann and Na Fıanna Éıreann (top left of the image above; here is the original photograph). The off-loading took place during the day but when the police and army met the marching volunteers at Clontarf they were able to capture only 19 rifles. As the army regiment involved returned to barracks it was pelted with stones or fruit by a crowd and killed three (with a fourth dying a week later), as recorded on the front page of the Irish Independent in the bottom left.

Below are two in-progress shots, and below those, two shots including the artist, Marty Lyons.

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Among The Heroes Of Labour

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“¡No pasarán! In memory of the International Brigades and the men from Derry, Donegal & Tyrone who served in the struggle against fascism in defence of the Spanish Republic 1936-38. … I measc laochra lucht oıbre go raıbh a n-aınm – May their names [name] be among the heroes of labour. Erected by the North-West Spanish Civil War Project, July 2013.”

For brief biographies of those named, see Ireland Spanish Civil War. For some background see DonegalDiaspora. The plaque is above the Unite offices in Carlisle Road, Derry.

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Féıle 2016

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The tarp says féıle is “a year round cultural experience” but the main event is still the Gasyard Féıle in August. This year’s féıle included a screening of the film 66 Days (Derry Now). The festival ends on the 18th. (Final night write-up from Derry Journal.)

On the rear of Free Derry Corner.

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Celtic Queen

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A mythological Celtic queen under the Lecky Road/Barrack Street flyover. Painted by RAZER (ig).

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Shared Space

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In addition to the defacing of Carson (see We Won’t Have Carson), a 32 County Sovereignty Movement mural remains about a quarter of the way along the newly repainted International Wall on Divis Street. (And as will be covered in a separate post, an IRPWA POW mural was in progress at the far right end of the wall.)

We understand that the painters offered to repaint the 32CSM mural after the historical mural had been in place for six months, but that this offer was turned down. For the purposes of the launch, then, a cloth sign, was hung over the 32CSM mural (as seen in the image above). It reproduces a poster (see the original) advertising “a public meeting for the formation of Irish Volunteers”; Eoin MacNeill, author in November 1913 of ‘The North Began’, presided at the meeting – here is the text of The North Began – and the newspaper carried by the hawker on the left reads “MacNeill successful in call for Irish Volunteers” (whereas it originally read “Rotunda rally – Irish volunteers now exceed 180,000” as can be seen in the Carson post). However, this cloth was removed immediately after the launch, meaning that the wall appears as in the image below.

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An tAos Óg Ag Sıúl

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Some of the people on 35th anniversary march were perhaps among the “Short Strand Youth Against H-Block & Armagh” in 1981 but the speakers at the Dunville Park rally were intentionally drawn from the younger Sinn Féin leaders, including Nıall Ó Donnghaıle from the Short Strand (An Phoblacht).

Here’s Michael McVeigh’s contribution to the Guthanna ’81 project; he was a member of the youth group during the blanket and hunger strikes.

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An Staılc Ocraıs

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“An staılc ocraıs 1981 hunger strike – 35th anniversary march – Sunday 14th August – Assemble Divis tower 2pm”. With portraits of the deceased 1981 hunger strikers; Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan are included even though they died in the 1970s.

On the site of the former Andytown RUC barracks, Falls Road/Glen Road, Belfast.

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That The Dawning Years Might Make You Fearless

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This memorial, which includes two stones, a glassed-in set of portraits of Derry Brigade members (second image), tricoloured railing and flag, commemorates the death of IRA volunteer Seamus Bradley. The stone on the right says that he was killed on active service, but the central headstone (third image) tells the story of an unarmed Bradley trying to distract the attention of British Army soldiers attacking people at the Creggan shops. To the right of the memorial is an extensive board of photographs and information relating to the treatment Bradley received, similar to the collection in front of the Operation Motorman mural in Rossville Street. (The oval plaque was on the wall of the Creggan Neighbourhood Centre – see M01604 – before it was demolished in 2013. (CAIN))

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On the 4th of July 1972 the British government met with army intelligence and army personnel, between them they created a blue print which was first called operation carcan to later be changed to operation motorman. In this secret meeting that place on the 4th of July, the army were to take 20,000 troops from the UN forces, and the government gave orders on a shoot to kill policy and confirmed that no soldier would be held accountable for their actions on that day. Over 1,500 of these soldiers and 300 centurion tanks were sent to free Derry to tear down the barricades and cause havoc, but the provisional IRA intercepted their blue print and decided to step down to protect the innocent people of Northern Ireland. It was 4:10am, there were 25 – 30 people at the Creggan shops when there was gunfire heard, Vol. Seamus Bradley unarmed drew attention to himself to save others. He ran down Bishop field where a soldier was to get out of a saracen, take aim in a kneeling position and fire two shots hitting him in the back, Vol. Seamus Bradley fell. Then the saracen drove down the field to where he lay, they put him in the saracen and took him away to St. Peter’s school, no one knew what happened after that. All they know is that he was interrogated, the pictures tell their own story. He was shot again three more times at close range, he was tortured and beaten and left to bleed to death at the hands of the British army. Afterwards it was confirmed by a doctor that none of Seamus Bradley’s injuries have been life threatening and had he received medical aid he would have lived.

This memorial is to commemorate Vol. Seamus Bradley just yards from where he fell. Vol. Seamus Bradley on the 2nd Battalion of B company Oglaıgh Na H-Éıreann, even though he was shot five times and beaten they could not make him betray his comrades. I lived and loved and laboured with a patriot’s heart and will that the dawning years might make you fearless and unfettered still. When a future age shall find thee free men stand by thy side Mother Ireland o” remember me. They may kill our bodies and take our blood but they will never break our spirits. killed on active service beırıgí bua

We Won’t Have Carson

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The history-of-republicanism mural now taking up the majority of the International Wall is not without controversy among republicans. One point of contention is the inclusion of Edward Carson’s portrait and the related scene of the Larne gun-running. Carson was leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance, campaigner against Home Rule, and founder of the Ulster Volunteers. 25,000 guns and more than 3 million rounds of ammunition were smuggled ashore at Larne, Donaghadee, and Bangor (see the second image for a sketch and the bottom two images for the completed scene). The formation of the UVF drew a counter-reaction in the formation of the Irish Volunteers, and membership was spurred on by the Larne gun-running. (See the third image.)

Carson’s image was originally paint-bombed in March (BMG | BelTel) and then again in April when “loose talk” posters were also added (Irish News). (For Loose Talk posters over the Otegi mural, see Loose-Talk Costs Lives.) For the launch on August 3rd, the posters were removed but the paint-bombing was not fixed. The image above is from June, 2016.

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Grid for the gun-running scene; image from March 2016. It is based on a drawing from the Illustrated London News, which can be seen in this RTÉ article on the gunrunning. About 600 cars were used in the operation, perhaps the first large-scale use of motorised vehicles.

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A newsboy carries a paper announcing the burgeoning Irish Volunteers. The headline portrayed was later changed, as can be seen in one of the images below.

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The first part of wall at the end of March, before the addition of the ‘loose talk’ posters over Carson’s face.

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The panel as it appears in August; the removal of the posters tore away some of the paint around Carson’s face.

A late August repaint makes Carson’s forehead protrude and the fingers of his hand are curled up. A Fáılte Feırste Thıar/Welcome To West Belfast panel has been added. (Presumably this welcome does not extend to the weapons being smuggled in as part of the gun-running.)

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