Belfast west

Where Your Fear Begins

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“My freedom doesn’t end where your fear begins. Brought to you by: The White Rose.” The White Rose was a Munich resistance group that undertook an anti-Nazi leaflet campaign in 1942-1943, until its leaders were arrested and executed (WP). This White Rose is “a global network [using Telegram] of independent activists, all working in unison to disseminate a much needed counter narrative to the relentless fear mongering, lies and propaganda we’ve all been subjected to since day one of the Covid-19 scamdemic.”

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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Legends Never Die

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“Heroes get remembered, legends never die.” Walter Smith passed away on October 26th, after a managerial career spanning 33 years, including two stints at Rangers – winning 21 titles over 11 years – and the Scottish national squad. A tarp in his honour – with poppies around his portrait – has been added to the Shankill Road celebration of Rangers’ 2020-2021 league title.

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Stop PSNI Harassment

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“Stop PSNI harassment of the loyalist community” The PSNI were attacked on Wednesday by youths who blocked Lanark Way (site of this sticker), following a small protest against the NI Protocol. Belfast Live ran a live-blog of the events. Police later suggested that the young people were organised by older people in the community in an attempt to increase tension over the Protocol (Belfast Live) and the threatened collapsing of Stormont by the DUP (BelTel). They were also attacked from the Springfield Road side (BelTel).

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Reject The Crown

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“Commander in chief of British armed forces not welcome in Ireland – Irish blood on Englands’ [sic] hands. Reject the crown in Ireland.” 32CCSM (web | tw) launched a poster campaign to protest the visit by Queen Elizabeth on October 21st to celebrate the centenary of Northern Ireland. She did not end up attending as she was advised to rest (BBC) (and was in fact hospitalised – BBC); Boris Johnson attended (BelTel). The poster includes the Ballymurphy Massacre mural (originally on the Whiterock Rd and later on the Springfield Rd) and the front page of the Daily Mirror after Bloody Sunday in Derry, 1972.

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McKelvey & Steele

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This tarp, above the office of Sınn Féın Poblachtach and the Happy House on the Falls Road, celebrates two previous generations of IRA leadership. Joe McKelvey was commander of the Belfast Brigade of the IRA in the War Of Independence but against the Treaty; he was executed in December, 1922, for occupying the Four Courts in June (WP). Jimmy Steele was a leader in the Belfast IRA from the 1920s to 1960s and the first editor of Republican News; he died shortly after the split (WP).

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Perverting The Course Of Justice

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Here is another set of images concerned with the on-going search for answers related to the death of teenager Noah Donohoe and to the PSNI inquiry into his death. It is now 67 weeks since Noah’s death and a new Facebook page has been set up to campaign for justice, and a petition to demand the resignation of Chief Constable Simon Byrne. These images are from the upper Falls and New Lodge areas of Belfast.

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Faces Of Death

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The ‘Hidden Treasure’ wild-style writing that in 2004 replaced the UDA C company mural from the Johnny Adair era on Beverley Street has itself now been partially replaced with the paintings (by emic (web)) of soldiers from the Shankill killed during WWI; the paintings were previously exhibited in the Shankill graveyard.

For more on the Shankill-Falls “peace” line and the early graffiti-art that was used to re-image it, see Visual History 10 – Re-Imaging.

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Unrepentant Republicans

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These two new boards along the Falls Road were mounted by Belfast RNU (tw), commemorating the actions of Billy McKee, Alec Murphy, and Brendan Hughes in 1969 at the onset of the Troubles, and of Máıre Drumm and “the brave women of Belfast who stood up against the might of the British” in bringing the Falls Curfew to an end. (This board was previously a mural on Divis Street.)

McKee and Hughes are profiled in a D Company mural in the number one spot of the International Wall. Murphy died in 2019 “unrepentant” of his republicanism (which was prompted by the Falls Curfew) and in particular his conviction along with Harry Maguire for the Corporal Killings (Irish News | BelTel). For a personal obituary, see The Pensive Quill.

For the plaque and board to the left of the wide shot below, see The Falls Road Massacre.

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launched June 17, 2021

Who Should Put Away Their Guns

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Norah McCabe was shot in the back of the head by a plastic bullet fired from an RUC land rover at around 7:45 a.m. on July 9th, 1981, the day after hunger striker Joe McDonnell died. (Danny Barrett would be killed by a British Army sniper in the evening.) The new boards were mounted to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of McCabe’s death. In 1981, a mural was painted at the same spot (in the old Linden Street) to protest the use of plastic bullets: see Plastic Death.

“Norah McCabe, 1947-1981, murdered by an RUC plastic bullet on 9th July 1981, aged 33 years.” With a poem “Peace” by daughter Áıne McCabe, who was three months old when her mother was killed (Irish News).

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