“NHS – they save lives not bans. Supporting all front line workers.” This tarp outside the Lower Falls social club goes back to last (2020) summer and discontent over Tory efforts to save businesses and banks rather than give nurses a raise beyond what was already in the pipeline (e.g. CNN | Sky News).
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The “Do not use” sign – from last year – is Saoaradh (web) reserving a wall in Braemar St (on the Falls Road) that has never (to our knowledge) been used by anyone else. As the image above shows, the space is now being used – in part – by a hunger strike 40th anniversary board.
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500 days after the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ plan for restoring Stormont was released, members of An Dream Dearg (tw) took to Slıabh Dubh (promo video) to urge for the plan’s “official recognition of the status of the Irish language in Northern Ireland”. The DUP – now under the leadership of Edwin Poots – say the party is committed to NDNA but that it does not contain an ‘Irish Language Act’ (News Letter One | Two).
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The sign reads “Dump wood – PSNI out”; the Ulster Banner flies to mark the boundary; guardians keep warm around a fire; old fridges and furniture lie among the pallets. The signs are unmistakable: collection for Eleventh Night 2021 is under way in the lower Shankill.
For the “Resilient” mural see I Am Not Resilient.
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Linfield FC are Irish Cup champions after a 2-1 victory over Larne last Friday (May 21st) (Belfast Live). They are also, as of Tuesday, premier league champions for the 55th time, matching Glasgow Rangers in Scotland for the most league championships in the world. (See previously: We Are The People | Respect Heritage Culture | Welcome To The Ulster Rangers | F*ck Your Ten In A Row | Terminus Rangers)
For the “Finucane Family” tarp (on the wall since 2019), see Steeped In Blood. For the lower tarp, see Choose One Or The Other!
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Both Clifton Street Orange Hall and the statue of King William pre-date the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921. The building opened in 1885 (ArchSeek | Belfast Media gives 1886) and the statue was unveiled before a crowd of 50,000 on November 11th, 1889 ((Melbourne) Advocate | (Sydney) Protestant Standard).
For the “Thank you NHS” banner, see Pro Tanto Quid Retribuamos.
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“Saoırse go deo.” INLA volunteer Kevin Lynch went on hunger strike 40 years ago yesterday, May 23rd, 1981. He would die 71 days later, on August 1st. His funeral is depicted above, part of a new IRSP/IRSM board commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes. The Tricolour (for the IRA) and Starry Plough (for the INLA) are used as blankets on the prison beds. The board is flanked by two other IRSP boards, one against the PSNI (“96% of Divis residents do not support the PSNI – defund, disarm, disband”) and one dedicated to founder Seamus Costello (“He was the only one who truly understood what James Connolly meant when he spoke of his vision of the freedom of the Irish people.” – Nora Connolly at Costello’s funeral) that was previously in Hugo Street.
Update: the HS 40th board was replaced by a “Divis 81” board.
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Graffiti in Gardiner Place in the wake of Brexit and the NI Protocol: above, “all taigs [Catholics] are targets” with crosshairs; below, “Brexit needs us to exit the EU”.
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Joe McCann was IRA/OIRA OC in the Markets area of Belfast. He was famously photographed among burning buildings in Inglis’s bakery, during protests against the introduction on internment, crouched beneath a Starry Plough and holding an M1. (For more, see Battle Of The Markets, which features the same photograph.) For McCann’s death the following year (on April 15th, 1972) see Joe McCann. This new board replaces a tarp in the same location: see On The Brink Of Sectarian Disaster.
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“Land for people not for profit.” About 900 people have been living in the former Woodstock Hospital – renamed Cissie Gool House – in Cape Town, South Africa, since 2017, in an on-going dispute with the city over housing and redevelopment of the site. In the most recent twist in the long-running tale, the occupants, campaigning under the name “Reclaim The City”, won a court battle to ensure that a survey of the residents must be undertaken by their own attorneys; the survey is ostensibly for the purposes to determine their eligibility for re-housing but the activists say it is a first step to eviction. (See IOL one | two | three | four.) “CMYC [Clonard Monastery Youth Centre web | Fb] supports the city Cape Town and Cissie Gool house”.
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Extramural Activity 