Belfast west

Four-Letter Words

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03442 2016-05-06 Stop Votng+

Three more images from the recent electoral season. Political parties were putting up hoardings and posters everywhere, such as Sınn Féın’s “Vote” ad (next to one for the rock-band Busted on their ‘Pigs Can Fly’ tour) and the DUP’s use of the spectre of a nationalist first minister as a reason to “keep” Arlene Foster and colleagues. Above, however, the watch-word is “stop”: “Want change? Stop vot[i]ng”.

03441 2016-05-05 A 4-Letter Word+

03440 2016-05-04 Keep Arlene First+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03442 X03441 X03440 railway br nothumberland st ? keep arlene f1rst minister vote for her DUP candidates it takes a4-letter word to be heard níos fear better with 5 point pledge

New Language Loading

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03403 2016-04-21 Whiterock Biodh Gaeilge+

Above is a pro-Gaelic (Irish-language) mural on the Whiterock Road, with signs in Irish being held by young people protesting cuts to social services (on the left) and (on the right) a short poem: “Tá Fraıncıs ag na Francaıgh/Tá Gréıgıs ann sa Ghréıg/Tá Iodáıl[ı]s ag na hIodálaıgh/Bíodh Gaeılge ag na Gaeıl.” That is: the French have French, the Greeks Greek, the Italians Italian; let there be Irish for the Irish.

The mural has been in this (unfinished?) state since October, 2015. Loading? The third line in fact has initial “L”s rather than “I”, which suggests — if a fada is added over the “o”s and the final “s” removed from “Lodáıls” — “the loaders have loading”

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03403 irish language we love our services is grá lınn ár seırbhısí ní neart go cur le chéıle

National Liberation And Socialism

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03352 2016-04-01 IRSP INLA 1916-2016+

A 1916 centenary mural on Divis Street with the red star of socialism and the Easter lily of Irish nationalism: “Republican Socialist movement — IRSP INLA — remembers and salutes all those who gave their lives and liberty in the struggle for national liberation and socialism in Ireland.”

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Pick And Mix

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03474 2016-05-03 Carroll On Shankill+

Voters went to the polls today in elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly. The ‘People Before’ candidate (and a current Belfast city councillor), Gerry Carroll, hopes to pick up some transfers from strategic voters on the Shankill.

Also from the current election season: Slippery Road.

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X03809 ulster unionist progressive unionist hutchinson nesbitt your choice your first minister

Neither King Nor Kaiser

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03361 2016-04-04 Connolly House 2016+

Connolly House – Belfast headquarters of Sınn Féın – for the centenary of the Easter Rising bears the same banner as flew on the ITGWU’s Liberty Hall (in Dublin) during the first world war (see image below) until the building was destroyed during the Rising: We serve neither king nor kaiser, but Ireland! The house was purchased by Sınn Féın in 1983 and brought to its current condition in 2007 (Irish Times).

For a previous appearance of the slogan, on the shirts of a Glasgow flute band, see Business As Usual.

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X03361 andersonstown rd

neither-king-nor-kaiser

Hold Your Head Up High

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03417 2016-04-27 96 Hillsborough+

On April 15th, 1989, 96 Liverpool football fans were crushed to death against steel fencing around the pitch at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield. On Tuesday (April 26th), an inquest found the police “grossly negligent” and that the fans were “unlawfully killed”. It also refuted allegations that fans had entered the ground illegally, and were drunk and unruly, and a variety of other claims made in The Sun and The Times about bad behaviour during the event. (Guardian | WP)

According to the Irish News, the simple tribute on Black Mountain of the number 96 is a collaboration by West Against Racism Network (WARN) and the West Belfast Liverpool Supporters Club. The materials were borrowed from Gael Force Art.

See also the Slıabh Dubh Visual History page.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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I Could Hardly Wait To Keep Our Date

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03384 2016-04-23 People's Parade+

Two competing posters for two competing dates for two (competing?) Easter Rising parades: the People’s Parade (above) was held today, April 24th, the date of the Rising in 1916; the other was held on this year’s Easter Sunday, March 27th, as the parade is annually held on Easter Sunday.

03383 2016-04-08 Easter Parade+

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X03384 X03385 beechmount ave glen rd easter parade 1916 2016 assemble divis tower 11.30 am parade leaves 12.00 pm sharp speaker gerry adams TD honour ireland’s patriot dead wear an easter lily cumann uaigheann na laochra gael national graves assocition easter commemoration committee belfast leaving barrack street for milltown at 12 noon

Slippery Road

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03382 2016-04-19 Slippery Road+

Vote with caution, regardless of party! Sınn Féın and People Before Profit posters for NI Assembly elections which take place on May 5th.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03382 falls rd

The Seven Signatories

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03371 2016-04-07 Cead Bliain Signatories+

The seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the provisional government of the Irish Republic. From left to right: Joseph Plunkett, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas Clarke, James Connolly, Padraig Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, Thomas MacDonagh.

The wide shot below shows all three new Andersonstown murals featured this week. For the main mural, see The Undauntable Thought; for the lily, see Ag Fíorú Na Poblachta.

03375 2016-04-07 Cead Bliain w+

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X03371 X03375 south link

The Undauntable Thought

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03374 2016-04-07 Cead Bliain+

A succession of Irish rebels is shown in this new mural in Andersonstown, west Belfast. It begins (top left) with the rebellion of 1798 and then to the Easter Rising of 1916 at the GPO in Dublin. In the lower left, a pious Padraıg Pearse awaits his execution with rosary beads in hand. There are then shown female figures from Cumann Na mBán and the IRA (see previously: United Irishwomen, Do You Care? and Mothering Sunday In Beechmount), and then Maıréad Farrell in Armagh Women’s Prison (for the original, see Prison Walls). In the bottom right corner there is a blanketman. The busts of Bobby Sands and Joe McDonnell float above the GPO and the last verse of Sands’s The Rhythm Of Time form the epigraph: “It lights the dark of this prison cell, it thunders forth its might, it is the undauntable thought, my friend, the thought that says, “I’m right”.

03373 2016-04-07 Cead Bliain Pearse+

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X03374 X03373 south link 1916 2016 centenary irish republic unbowed unbroken