#DerryHappy

2015-08-11 DerryHappy+

This 2015 mural in the Bogside in support of a Twitter campaign shows a brain giving birth to the idea of love, smiley faces giving the ‘V for victory’ salute and other cheery images and colours.

Update: Here’s Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson being interviewed in August 2016 in front of the mural after a bonfire was erected and set alight at the bottom of the flyover (Derry Journal).

X03752 2016-08-16 Martina Bogside+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Respect Equality

2015-08-09 RespectEquality+

The People Before Profit Alliance is an all-Ireland political party closely related to the Socialist Workers Party. In the north, candidate Gerry Carroll was elected to Belfast City Council in 2014, representing Black Mountain. Gay rights does not seem to form an explicit part of the platform, but the mural above, featuring a heart with the rainbow colours, appeared on Divis St in time for the Pride parade on August 1st.

See also: Cherish from Sınn Féın

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The Thirtieth Of January 1972

2015-08-07 GoyaDerry+

Above is a local interpretation of Robert Ballagh’s 1970 rendering of Goya’s The Third Of May 1808 in Glenfada Park, Derry/Doıre, site of four deaths on Bloody Sunday, 1972.

The original commemorates Spanish resistance to the forces of Napoleon (WP). For this Derry version, features from the city’s skyline – the Guildhall, St. Columb’s Cathedral, and an intact Governor Walker column – have replaced the original’s outline of Madrid, as well as an insignia of the Paras on the arm of a soldier. 

For Ballagh’s original (“1970”) version and a description and video of the launch see bloodysundaymarch.org. Here is an Eamonn McCann lecture on the political history of the Goya painting. Until recently, the piece above was adjacent to a version of Picasso’s Guernica.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02720 Jim Wray, William McKinney, Gerard McKinney, Gerard Donaghy paratroop regiment

The High Meadow

2015-07-28 ClonardBoardWide+

As the map below shows, the area between the Shankill and the Falls roads in 1789 was largely undeveloped and perhaps titles such as “Cluain Ard” (“Clonard”) were descriptions as well as names. The ‘White Linen Hall’ – on the site of the current City Hall – had been completed the year before. St. Mary’s was the first Catholic church in Belfast. Wikipedia reports that on the day of its first mass, May 30th, 1784, “the mostly Presbyterian 1st Belfast Volunteer Company paraded to the chapel yard and gave the parish priest a guard of honour, with many of the Protestants of Belfast also present and sharing the event”. (WP) The map also shows a series of ponds connected to the nearby Flush. A close-up of the board is below.

2015-07-28 ClonardBoard+

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X02700 X02699 aine dell aisling aimee clare roisin paul

1789BelfastMap
1789 map of Belfast by James Lawson.

Cherish

2015-08-04 Cherish+

The 1916 Proclamation Of Irish Republic includes the sentence “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.” At the time, it had a political meaning, but it has since been pressed into service by advocates of children’s right and now, in the board above, by supporters of gay rights. James Connolly (leader of the Irish Citizen Army) and the text of the declaration are shown against a backdrop of the gay pride rainbow flag. Launched 2015-07-31

02779 2015-08-19 GlenRdWide+

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X02714 X02779 ceartas anois truth ballymurphy massacre springhill pearse jordan belfast IRSP commemoration parade britain out of ireland

The Vigil

“Felons presents an exciting new drama by Roseleen Walsh [web]– The Vigil – sixty one years apart yet both [Kieran Doherty 1981 and Terence MacSwiney 1920] died on hunger strike for the cause of Ireland.” The play was produced for Féile An Phobail (web). Walsh’s introduction and excerpts from the play are available on youtube.

Falls Road, Belfast, on the railings around the site of the former RUC barracks.

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Murals Of Innocence

2015-07-25 ChangeTheWorld+

The mural ‘History Is Written By The Winner‘ was replaced by the mural above as part of Oliver Jeffers‘s film (trailer) for U2’s Songs Of Innocence. It features Joey Ramone (after a song on the album called “The Miracle Of Joey Ramone”) with Earth for a head. The band finished a tour of North America with a July 31st concert in New York, attended by Bill and Hillary Clinton (USNews).

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X02698 all the stolen voices will one day be returned i can’t change the world but i can change the world in me 1951-2001 Hey! Ho! Let’s go U2 bono edge radio plug magnetic poles lightbulb

Republican Items

IRA volunteer (and marksman in the Irish Army) John Starrs was killed in a May 13th, 1972, gun battle with the British Army in William Street (Seachranaıdhe), near his plaque in Chamberlain Street, Derry, which is also home to Connolly House, home of the IRSP in Derry, and Junior McDaid house, home of Saoradh/IRPWA.

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The Eyes Have It

The vents in the ?substation? are used as eye in a new piece of street art underneath the ramp to Barrack Street, Derry.

Previously site of Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.

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Yeomna Qadm

Pro-Palestine mural in Beechmount Avenue/Ascaıll Ard na bhFeá. If there’s a better translation/pronunciation for the Arabic “Tıocfaıdh ár lá”, please let us know.

Previously: Freedom In ArabicViva Palestine on Black Mountain/Slıabh Dubh | Leila Khaled in Hugo Street | The Popular Front

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