“This is what a so called united Ireland would look like” – attacks on pro-Israeli murals in interface areas (in this case, Beverley Street, between the Shankill and the Falls.) This is the latest attack on the Patterson mural just off Northumberland Street (the Battle Of Britain mural was also damaged – Irish News). The mural was previously defaced, also by burning, in June 2016 (not 2017 as on the mural) – see Where Is The Reconciliation? – and graffitied in March 2017 (BBC-NI). The title of the post is part of the line at the bottom, from Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the burial of Patterson’s ashes in 2014.
The Republican Network For Unity (RNU) affirm their solidarity with Palestine over the recent deaths during the March Of Return (see also His Land, His Legs, His Life) with a new mural showing an Israeli hand smothering a Palestinian face. Here is the RNU’s statement on the recent deaths in Gaza. “RNU in west Belfast” and “End internment” are from the ‘Free Tony Taylor’ mural that this board covers over.
It is usually the fourth verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen that is quoted on memorial stones to the fallen of the WWI but here we have the third verse: They went with songs to the battle, they were young/Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow/They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted/They fell with their faces to the foe. The stone commemorates “the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who gave their lives for King and country at the Battle of the Somme 1st July – 18th November 1916”. It is in the garden adjacent to the West Kirk Presbyterian church (Fb) on the Shankill Road. As the image below shows, the garden is also host to many small boards to individual soldier (see previously Among The Fallen | XXXVI | The Sacrifice Remains The Same).
The Great March Of Return was a six-week protest by Palestinians in Gaza. Most protestors at the border fence with Israel were non-violent but there are reports of some with rocks, burning tyres, Molotov cocktails on a kite, and an AK-47 (WP). It ended (officially – incidents have continued) on May 15th, Nakba Day, the “day of the catastrophe”, meaning the displacement of Palestinians in the 1948 war. The protest demanded that refugees be allowed to return home – there are 1.1 million living in Gaza. During the protest more than 100 Palestinians died, many by live fire by Israeli forces, and more than 13,000 were injured. According to the mural above, “It’s time the Irish Government show some humanity and act for the Palestinian people. 1. Officially recognise the state of Palestine. 2. Impose economic sanctions on Israel. 3. End all diplomatic ties with the apartheid state. Boycott Israel, an apartheid state.”
The wheelchair protester shown on the right is double amputee Saber Al-Ashkar. He has not, however, been reported dead, as the text below the image (and reports on Twitter and elsewhere) suggests: “They took his land, his legs, and finally his life.” The death might refer to another such protestor Fadi Abu Salah, who was killed in May (Alaraby) (or Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, who was shot in December 2017 – Independent obituary). The UN Commissioner for Human Rights called the killing “incomprehensible” (Guardian); an internal IDF investigation found that Abu Thuraya was not shot by Israeli snipers (Times Of Israel).
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was reformed in 2001 as the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), as recommended by the Patten Commission. This Saoradh (web | Fb | tw) tarp in Hugo Street questions the extent to which the force has changed. The traditional RUC officer in bullet-proof vest is on the left; the modern officer on the right is more heavily protected. In the centre, the PSNI emblem overlays the old RUC one, with Stormont in the background.
For the board celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, see versions in Andersonstown| Ardoyne | St James.
This poster, which is all over the lower Falls, is in response to recent Gerry Adams interviews, one with Peter Taylor, in which he told dissidents to “Go away”, and aninterview with Andrew Marr where Adams said that the IRA is gone: “We are not going anywhere, Gerry. 32 [county Ireland] or nothing … the IRA.”
CR gas, along with CS, VX and other chemical agents, was developed at the MoD lab in Porton Down, and authorised and available for use from 1973 onwards against prisoners in Long Kesh (Guardian). Jim McCann was in Long Kesh during the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’, when republican prisoners attempted to burn down the cages in which they were being kept in protest at conditions in the camp (An Phoblacht). His memoir, And The Gates Flew Open (An Ceathrú Póilí), continues the campaign by him and other prisoners to get the British to admit that the gas was used on inmates during the riot. The book was launched last month in the Cultúrlann.
In the lower left corner is a quoted telegram from Fr. Denis Faul, Fr. Raymond Murray: “To international Red Cross … Visited Long Kesh today with others … Request immediate investigation into use of CR gas … sub-human conditions … SOS … come immediately …” 20 Oct. 1974. These two wrote an 80-page report on the conditions at the camp following the event, entitled The Flames Of Long Kesh.
Here are two in-progress shots of a new mural depicting the Battle Of Long Kesh in 1974. We will have images of the completed mural, and background, tomorrow.
Here is an update to the mural of Gaeılgeoır, 1916 Volunteer, and hunger-striker Tomás Aghas/Thomas Ashe at the top of the Whiterock Road: a Maid Of Erin harp – familiar from the crest of 1798’s United Irishmen – has been added to the background.
A “blue plaque” has been erected on the front of the Shankill Methodist church (on the Shankill at Berlin Street) to Saidie Patterson “trade unionist and peace activist”. In 1940 she led a seven-week strike to improve conditions and pay in Ewart’s linen mill on the Crumlin Road, where she had been working since age 14. As noted on the plaque, she was the first winner of the World Methodist Peace Prize (in 1977) – Allan McCullough has a photo of Patterson with her medal (the one in the middle). The plaque was unveiled on International Women’s Day 2018. (Irish News | Bel Tel | BBC-NI)
Extramural Activity 