Belfast west

The Typist With The Webley

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The typist with the Webley: Winifred Carney – socialist, republican, freedom fighter, Irish Citizen Army, Cumann Na mBan, suffragist, trade unionist, revolutionary.”

Winifred Carney was a qualified secretary and typist, and became secretary of the Irish Textile Workers’ Union in 1912, in which position she met James Connolly, who was secretary of the Belfast branch of the ITGWU. She was a member of Cumann Na mBan and participated in the Easter Rising of 1916. Carney was in the GPO when it was taken over and was among those who surrendered at the end; during the occupation she typed up dispatches from the Moore Street headquarters – this is how she was portrayed in the the 1916 Centenary mural.

(DIB | Ulster Biography | A Century Of Women | BBC | WP)

Stencil from Lasaır Dhearg (web) in Glenveagh Drive, Lenadoon, west Belfast, replacing the simple graffiti Ní Saoırse Go Saoırse Na mBan.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15830 X15828 X15829

This Is Our Israel

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“This is our Israel and this we shall defend.” “This” is Northern Ireland.

This is a vintage sticker (dating back to 2021) on the Shankill Road at Lawnbrook Avenue.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15831

To All The Women Of The Shankill

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“She hasn’t a sword and she hasn’t a gun. But she’s doing her duty now fighting’s begun.” This entry updates the 2016 entry with details from the board – now almost a decade old – dedicated “To all the women of the Shankill” and highlighting the roles played by women during WWI as nurses and welders and in the Land Army.

The troops in the upper-middle part of the board are shown gathered outside the West Belfast Orange Hall, on the Shankill at Brookmount Street.

outside the Ulster Rangers Supporters Club (Fb) on the Shankill Road

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15844 X15845 X15843

LWF

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

For Remembrance Sunday, rows of hand-painted wooden medallions were attached to the railings at West Kirk Presbyterian to pay homage to the dead of the British armed forces.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15839 X15840 X15841 X15842

Free Marwan

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Free Marwan and all Palestinian political prisoners”. Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the group Fatah, has been in Israeli prison since 2002. He was seen last month in a video showing Israeli’s national security minister taunting the 66-year-old Barghouti in his cell (BBC | Al Jazeera | NPR).

Barghouti and 1,000 other prisoners went on hunger-strike in 2017 in order to win family visits for prisoners; see “Free Marwan Barghouti” in Belfast and in Derry and Barghouti’s quote “Our Chains Will Be Broken Before We Are” in a north Belfast stencil.

The photograph reproduced in this mural, of Barghouti giving the “V” for victory symbol while in handcuffs, can be seen at New Arab.

Divis Street, west Belfast, on the International Wall, where Barghouti’s son Aarab spoke at the launch (youtube).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15767 X15766 X15768

The Dividing Wall Between Us

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Work on the “New Life” (New Life City church – Fb) concrete relief on the Cupar Way “peace” line (war wall) at the North Howard Street gates has been completed – with brightly coloured paints and a pair of plaques below the cross that read “The first 3D cement peace fresco on a Belfast dividing wall. Created by local artist Debbie Hutchings ‘Irish Angel’. The for the amazing help of ECC Builders. Created on behalf of New Life City Church. Dedicated by Pastor Johnny McKee with young people & others from New Life City Church from both sides of the wall. Thursday 14th August 2025. ‘He is our peace who has destroyed the dividing wall between us’ Eph. 2.14.”

The creator is Debbie Hutchings, a member of the New Life City church (Fb) (Belfast Media); the piece is on top of the ‘repent’ version of the New Life mural, and it contains scriptural quotations from John 3:16: “For God so loved the world He gave His only begotton [begotten] son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” and John 3:8: “The wind blows as it chooses, you can hear it’s [its] sound but you do not know where it came from or where it is going; so it is with the hearts of those born of the spirit”. There is video of Hutchings at work in this Irish News video on Fb and at the BelTel.

Work began at the beginning of April; there are in-progress images below from July 1st and May 1st.

For the board to the left, see Hope Unlocking Friendships.

July 1st:

May 1st:

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15750c X15751 X15752 X15753 X15754 X15755 X15756 X15757 X15758
[X15650] X15651
X15391 [X15392] X15393

Hope Unlocking Friendships

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Tackle inequality – create opportunities – inspire change”. The large board shown here is in Cupar Way, near the security gates in North Howard Street, which are locked nightly between 8:30 and 6:30 a.m. (DoJ). These and the nearby Northumberland Street gates separate the lower Falls and the middle Shankill, including the young people from the Active Communities Network (web), a cross-community youth group that lobbied for increased opening hours to allow members to return home quickly after meetings (BBC).

The board was originally on Northumberland Street (Belfast Live) in the Arthur Guinness spot but is now in Cupar Way.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15761

Bi Herri, Borroka Bat

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Bi herri, borroka bat – ETA [Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, a Basque separatist group]” – “Two peoples, one struggle”, in Basque, on the side of the Falls library in Sevastopol Street.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15747

Fellowship

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Anti-immigrant graffiti on the wall of Mustardseed Christian Fellowship in Crimea Street, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15743

Seasaımıd Le Lıam Óg

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“We stand with Lıam Óg”, that is Lıam Óg Ó hAnnaıdh (on the left of the image above), a.k.a. Mo Chara, a member of the rap group Kneecap who appeared in court (in London) on Wednesday August 20th on “terrorism” charges and was bailed for a further month while the judge rules on a technical issue about whether the trial can go forward (BBC). (See previously The Magic Within and Seasaımıd Le Kneecap.)

The night before (the 19th) this board featuring images of the band-members and the band in its early days was unveiled on the Whiterock Road. (Video of the launch can be found on the Glór Na Móna instagram account.)

In the background is a Palestinian flag and “Saoırse don Phalaıstín” [Freedom for Palestine] is written along the bottom.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15723 X15724 X15725 X15726