End British Internment

“End the torture in Maghaberry Gaol – Smash Stormont – www.irpwa.com – Irish Republican Prisoners’ Welfare Association – strip searching – isolation – controlled movement.”

IRPWA board on the rear of Free Derry Corner.

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A Small Area

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“Ardoyne-Bone boxers have punched well above their weight. As professional we have won … British, Commonwealth, European & W.B.U. titles. As amateurs we have won 3 olympic bronze, European Gold, Commonwealth Gold, World Junior silver, 17 Irish senior titles & an A.B.A senior title. Nor forgetting all our boxing coaches, who put in their time and effort for all our young boxers. Truly amazing for such a small area.” The wide shot below shows the whole of this new Ardoyne/Ard Eoın mural celebrating local boxers; the boxers named are Darren Corbett (WP), John Kelly (FightsRec), Paddy Barnes (WP), Harry McAuley (BoxRec), Anthony Maguire, Hugh Gilhooley (BoxRec), Eamonn McAuley (BoxRec), Freddie Gilroy (WP), Terry Magee (WP), Sean Brown, Noel Magee (WP), Barney Burns, Pat Kelly, Eamonn Magee (WP).

A mural celebrating Paddy Barnes’s 2014 Commonwealth gold medal: Oh, Paddy Boy

Pathé video of John Kelly being knocked out in 1954

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We Can Step In Anywhere And Turn Back The Clock

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Students from Coláıste Feırste took part in a Forbaırt Feırste (Fb) “pop-up art” project, designing plastic wrap for the installation of blocks at the old entrance to Beechmount leisure centre (see the wide shot immediately below). Taking its lead from a Ciarán Carson poem, the design features “a million wind-blown buttercups”, as well as the front page of Edward O’Reilly’s English-Irish dictionary (image #4, below).

The piece was officially opened by Caral Ní Chuılín during Féıle An Phobaıl. (Press release from NI Executive

Sponsored by the Arts Council and Feırste Thıar.

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X02710 X02712 X02709 X02711 X02707 an irish-english dictionary with copious quotations from the most esteemed ancient and modern writers to elucidate the meaning of obscure words and numerous comparisons of irish words with those of similar orthography sense or sound in the welsh and hebrew languages tá am gan teoraınn bogann sé sıar mar scáth ar an léarscaıl seo ach tríd an chuımhne tıg lınn bheıth ın áıt ar bıth san am atá caıte. tá mé ı bpıctıúrlann chluaın ard arís ag amharc ar the wizard of oz den chéad uaır arís eıle tá an gort os comhaır teach ard na bhfeá lán de na mıllıúın fearán séıdte cıarán carson time is a moving boundary drifting like cloud shadow westwards on this map but through memory we can step in anywhere and turn back the clock i’m in the clonard picture house again seeing the wizard of oz for the first time once more the field in front of beechmount house is trembling with a million wind-blown buttercups i ndíl [ndıl] cuımhne [chuımhne] [ar] ár gcomrádaí clive dutton ar aghaıgh onwards deirdre mackel deirdre robb arthur scott damien rea Robert Shipboy McAdam macadam antiquorian and gaelic scholar 1808-1895 lived in a house on this site éıríonn teanga agus spreagann sí

IRPWA Prisoners

The IRPWA (tw | Fb) placed the names of prisoners currently held in Maghaberry in the barbed wire above the so-called “international” wall. Barbed wire is the symbol of republican prisoners though this barbed wire is used to protect Andrews Flour. Above, you can see the boards for Harkin, Mellon and McGilloway.

The full list, from left to right: Seamus Kearney, Gerard McManus, Nathan Hastings, Mark McGuigan, Sean Kelly, Barry Concannon, Damien Harkin, Thomas Mellon, Martin McGilloway, Jason Ceulemans, Gavin Coney, Liam O’Donnell, Neil Hegarty, Jon Paul Wooton, Martin Kelly, Colin Duffy, Harry Fitzsimons, Christopher O’Kane, Tarlach MacDhomhnaill, Seamus McLaughlin, Gavin Coyle, Brendan McConville, Kevin Barry Nolan.

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Rest Easy Big Man

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Former CIRA commander Tommy Crossan’s 2014 murder by former colleagues was unusual in that is was carried out during the daytime (and also because he was abducted just off the Springfield Rd). (BBC-NI news video) The graffiti above declares that vengeance will be won.

Previously: Tommy Crossan

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X02708 RIP Vol Tommy Crossan 18/4/2014 justice will be done

#DerryHappy

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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).

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Respect Equality

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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

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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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X02720 Jim Wray, William McKinney, Gerard McKinney, Gerard Donaghy paratroop regiment

The High Meadow

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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.

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X02700 X02699 aine dell aisling aimee clare roisin paul

1789BelfastMap
1789 map of Belfast by James Lawson.

Cherish

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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

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