Above is a detail from the Gerard “Mo Chara” Kelly mural at the northern end of Springhill Avenue: a lone figure in Palestinian colours is about to hurl a Molotov cocktail at a tank in Israeli blue-and-white with a (reversed-Nazi) swastika on its side.
The full mural is shown below. The portion to the left appeared in Palestine Abú and the portion to the right in Hellfire.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Four images portray a long graffito on the Cupar Way “peace” line. In full, it reads:
Provisional IRA leader Gerry Adams on Sinn Feins stadgey [= strategy] of Orange parades
“Ask any activist, did Drumcree happen by accident and they tell you “No”.
“3 years of hard work helped create those situations for us to exploit.”
Drumcree, Ormo [= Ormeau], Twad[d]ell, Dunloy. “Where next”??
Wood (Crimes Of Loyalty p. 202) gives the following quote, reportedly a transcript of remarks made by Adams at a Sınn Féın meeting in Meath, as, “Ask any activist in the North, did Drumcree happen by accident, and he will tell you “No.”. Three years of work on the Ormeau Road, in Portadown, and parts of Fermanagh and Newry, Armagh, and in Bellaghy, and up in Londonderry [other sources, such as the Irish Times, give the much more likely “Derry”]. Three years of work went into creating that situation and fair play to those who put the work in. They are the type of scene chances we need to focus on and develop and exploit.”
Descriptions of the contentious parades in the places mentioned can be found on CAIN.
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Here are close-ups of the two boards to either side of the new Young Conquerors piece (featured recently in Veni, Vidi, Vici). The first shows a photograph of the original Donegall Pass Defenders Flute Band, which lasted a short time in the 1970s before the formation of the Conquerors in 1977 (Fb). The second shows the patch of the band.
Update (2015-01): Nikki has kindly sent us an image of the band parading, taken sometime in the 1970s. Her grandfather, Thomas Lorimer, recently passed away and she found the picture in his roof space. He was a member of the Defenders and is at the far left of the picture, on the bass drum. She was also able to identify him in the posed picture from the board – shown in detail below; he is the tall gent in the back.
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Here is another piece of the new Gerard “Mo Chara” Kelly murals in Springhill: a figure in a black-and white keffiyeh give the two-finger ‘V for victory’ sign beneath the Terence McSwiney (WP) quote: It is not those who can inflict the most but those that can suffer the most who will conquer.
Previously: Hellfire
Previously at this location: A Dead End
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UVF volunteers (l-r) Thomas Chapman, James McGregor, Robert McIntyre, William Hannah, and Robert Wadsworth, who were killed between 1973 and 1978, are commemorated in a new mural in Carnan (or “C. Coy”) Street. The mural is unusual in that it shows bare-faced full figures; loyalist murals sometimes include head-shots (at the top of the mural, in the apex of a gable wall, e.g. Standing Guard) but only masked men appear as full figures. There is a similarity in composition and style (and perhaps even palette) to existing Republican murals such as this one of five B. Coy IRA volunteers in Ballymurphy.
The wide shot (below) is taken from the main road: the fish-and-chip shop on the Shankill is called “A Salt And Battered”. For a straight-on image of the red-and-black mural to the left, see We Were Young. Still shots of the mural in progress are included in this video of the bands parading at the launch.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Black Mountain/Slıabh Dubh’s ‘Viva Palestine‘ became ‘Viva Ireland’ – shown below – which in turn was quickly replaced with ‘Yes Scotland’, shown above as seen over the wall of the Springfield PSNI barracks from the (Protestant) Springmartin Road: a union flag and a St. Andrew’s (Scottish) saltire fly from houses in the foreground. These two flags are being used in the media to represent the opposing sides: the Saltire for ‘Yes’ and the Union flag for ‘No’. Scots go to the polls on Thursday the 18th; the two polls of the past week (You-Gov | TNS) suggest that the sides are running neck-and-neck.
Previously: A message To The People Of Scotland
See also: the Slıabh Dubh Visual History page.
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Paddy Barnes fights India’s Devendro Singh Laishram in the light flyweight gold-medal bout at the 2014 Commonwealth games in Glasgow. Barnes won gold, successfully defending his title and adding to his collection, shown in the second image (below) and listed at the bottom of the mural (third image, below). Barnes sparked controversy when he remarked, as the Londonderry Air/Danny Boy was played as the Northern Irish “anthem”, “That’s not my national anthem.”. The mural is in Barnes’s home area of Ardoyne/Ard Eoın and was painted by Lucas Quigley and Mickey Doherty.
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Pro-Palestine board outside the north Belfast Sınn Féın office on the Antrim Road showing a bloody hand-print and the face of a crying child: “Stad leıs an ghéarleanúınt – ag tacú le cearta na Palaıstíne” : “Stop the persecution – supporting Palestinian rights”. The close-up of the hand and face, below, is taken from an English-language version of the board in Beechmount Street. The third image is of the same board at the Glen Road/Andersonstown Road junction.
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This paste-up in multiple city centre locations shows a child squatting among (fake) flowers in a tub. Artist unknown.
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An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a Hellfire missile at a young Gazan boy carrying a teddy-bear. This is one of the panels of Gerard “Mo Chara” Kelly‘s (video) new work in Springhill, begun over a month ago and comprising seven panels. This one reproduces a Carlos Latuff (ig) image.
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Extramural Activity 