“Our rulers will stop at nothing to attain their ends. They will continue to rule and rob until confronted by men who will stop at nothing to overthrow them.” The quote is from James Connolly on Conscription in 1915. Local volunteer Joe McDonnell is portrayed between the names of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers. Lenadoon Avenue, Belfast.
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Nature sent the potato blight, government & landlords created the famine.” A woman kneeling between two gravestones inspects a rotten potato during the Great Hunger (Visual History).
Lenadoon Avenue, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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St Oliver Plunkett FC, [founded] 1969, (Fb) with portraits of Philip Mulryne, Anton Rogan, Jim Magillen, Paul McVeigh, Jackie, next to Lenadoon Park, where the team plays its home games.
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The main Lenadoon mural is refreshed and more portraits and a plaque added (on the right). The dying Cú Chulainn (as portrayed in bronze by Oliver Sheppard, in a statue installed in the GPO in 1935) is used as a symbol for the locals from Lenadoon (including IRA volunteers) who fought for freedom (“saoırse”). They are listed on the scrolls to each side and in the portraits in the apex: Tony Henderson, John Finucane, Brendan O’Callaghan, Joe McDonnell, Laura Crawford, Maıréad Farrell, Patricia Black, Bridie Quinn (previously listed as Bridie O’Neill).
For the previous version (though without the three faces it initially had, of O’Callaghan, McDonnell, and Farrell) see M01934.
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Twelve hunger strikers prior to the 1981 strike are included in this Shaws Road board: on the left: Thomas Ashe, Mountjoy 1917; Michael Fitzgerald, Cork 1920; Terence McSwiney, Brixton 1920; Joseph Murphy, Cork 1920; Joseph Witty, Curragh 1923; Denis Barry, Newbridge 1923; Andrew Sullivan, Newbridge 1923; Tony D’Arcy, Arbour Hill 1940; Jack McNeela, Arbour Hill 1940; Seán McCaughey, Portlaoise 1946; Michael Gaughan, Parkhurst 1974; plus on the right: Frank Stagg, Wakefield 1976.
For the mural in better condition, see M04541.
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Charlie Tully, born in the Pound Loney in 1924, played for Belfast Celtic (1944-1948) and Glasgow Celtic (1948-1959) (WP | CharlieTully.com). The mural is on the back of the Celtic Bar on the Falls Rd/Waterford St.
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Ballymurphy unbowed, unbroken” with images of Ballymurphy including the mural of McCrudden-O’Rawe–Jordan and memorial garden on Divismore Way (left) and Springhill (right). The male figures in the foreground are unnamed but the four in jackets are presumably Stone, McWilliams, McCracken, and Dougal after their mural in Springhill Drive was blanked; the female activists on the left of Cú Chulaınn are Mary Austin, Kathleen Clarke, Annie McWilliams. “This mural was unveiled by Gerry Adams MP 2nd May 2010.”
“Ní thıg leat Éıre a chloígh, ní thıg leat fonn saoırse mhuıntır na hÉıreann a mhúc[h]adh.” [“You cannot subdue Ireland; you cannot extinguish the desire for the freedom of the Irish people.”]
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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These are panels 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 16, 17, and 19 (of 19) of the children’s mural in Hopewell Avenue. It shows kids at play across the century, from lamp-post swings and marbles to razor scooters and break-dancing. By Blaze FX.
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The summer of 1969 is generally taken to be the beginning of the Troubles in Belfast and the most famous symbol of the August riots is the burning of Bombay Street. The street was (and is) just below the old Cupar Street, where many streets drop down from the Shankill (you can see the distribution of PUL and CNR houses in the Visual History page on the west Belfast “peace” line). This event is commemorated in nationalist murals (see e.g. No Mission) but for a statement from the PUL perspective, see Can It Change?
The mural is based on a Frankie Quinn photograph “Belfast 1984”.
Hopewell Avenue, lower Shankill, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 2009/2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Graffiti next to the upper security gate in Northumberland Street. It is not clear which feud is being referred to.
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Copyright © 2009 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Extramural Activity 