“UDA Out – ONH”. Óglaıgh na hÉıreann called a ceasefire in January, 2018 (BBC-NI) and largely disappeared from public consciousness. This recent graffiti, which is perhaps related to drug dealing (BelTel | BLive | BBC-NI | see previously Little Monsters), is at the top of Broadway.
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Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The D Company board that was placed over the Brendan Hughes painting earlier in the year (see: Nailed To The Mast) was prelude to this new mural. Brendan Hughes has been included since the 2008 version (compare 2005 with 2008) but Crumlin Road hunger-striker Billy McKee is included for the first time. McKee was the first OC of the PIRA’s Belfast Brigade and arrested for possession of a handgun. The hunger strike was to secure political status for prisoners who had been convicted of crimes (WP).
“This mural is dedicated to the lives of: Billy McKee, Hunger-striker, Crumlin Road Gaol, achieved political status, 1972; Kieran Nugent, Blanketman, H-Blocks Long Kesh, fought the loss of political status, 1976; Brendan Hughes, Blanketman, Hunger-striker, H-Blocks Long Kesh, 1980.”
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Bathed in sunshine: UVF graffiti on the purple wall opposite the Passchendaele mural in Conway Walk.
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“Dublin hands off Ulster – EU/PIRA”. For this Agnes Street graffitist, the EU’s refusal to accept a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic make it bedfellows with the IRA.
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The Westminster election called by Boris Johnson and the Conservatives for December 12th has become a referendum on Brexit, with a pro-Remain pact between the Liberal Democrats, Greens, and Plaid Cymru in 60 British constituencies (BBC). In Northern Ireland, manoeuvring got under way with UDA threats against any UUP candidate who might stand in Belfast North (News Letter). The UUP, which had previously committed itself to stand in all 18 NI constituencies, withdrew (BBC), as did the SDLP (BelTel), leaving the contest essentially between the (unionist, pro-Brexit) DUP’s Nigel Dodds and (nationalist, anti-Brexit) Sınn Féın’s John Finucane (shown second from left). Finucane is current Belfast Mayor but is presented here as part of a “republican family”: he is son of murdered lawyer Pat Finucane (fourth from left) and Shankill bomber Sean Kelly (WP) was seen canvassing for him. (The headline is from his campaign activity in 2017 – BelTel. A similar story ran last week about his campaigning in this election – BelTel | News Letter.)
The vote in North Belfast is expected to be close. The current Brexit proposal involves customs checks in the Irish Sea (BBC), but the DUP will be hoping for No-Deal or the end to the NI backstop.
For analysis of North Belfast and all of the NI seats, see Bangor Dub.
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“700+ MI5 agents in Ireland.” Lasaır Dhearg (tw | web) and Red Section (Fb) stencils in Beechmount Avenue protesting the continued presence of British security forces on the island of Ireland. The 700 number comes from reports of additional MI5 agents in the wake of a New IRA car bomb in January (IntelNews | Times | Irish Central).
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Merdeka! Independence! West Papuans live under Indonesian rule since 1962 when United States, in the guise of the UN, “entrusted” the territory to Indonesia in exchange for a captured CIA pilot (WP). Leader-in-exile Benny Wenda is shown here against a backdrop of the flag of (independent) West Papua, the Morning Star, shown here hanging vertically.
The adjacent mural expresses solidarity with the Syrian Kurds – see Rojava Offensive.
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Padraig Pearse was a schoolmaster (at St Enda’s in Dublin) and wrote about the importance of education to the character of the nation. He described the English education system in Ireland as a “murder machine“. In a pamphlet of that name he writes, “Education has not to do with the manufacture of things, but with fostering the growth of things. And the conditions we should strive to bring about in our education system are not the conditions favourable to the rapid and cheap manufacture of ready-mades, but the conditions available to the growth of living organisms – the liberty and the light and the gladness of a ploughed field under the spring sunshine.” on which the Irish above might possibly be based (though he wrote about 50 pieces on education): “Is é an tsamhaıl a bheırım don oıdeachas, ní rud a dhéanfa ar líne chóımeála ı monarcha ach bláth ı ngaırdín a chothaíonn tú le mórchuıd grá agus cúraım.” [I take as a likeness of education not something that is made on an assembly line in a factory but a flower in a garden that you nourish with great love and care.] For some background, see Pearse The Educationalist. Pearse’s likeness and philosophy of education are posted at the entrance to Coláıste Feırste.
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“Aye ready they stood, aye ready they fought, through conflict, blood and tears, loyal to the end, every one, the Scottish volunteers.” “Aye ready” was the motto of the 59th Scinde Rifles of the British Indian Army (and later of the Canadian Navy) but is best known from the label of Camp Coffee, in which a Highlander was served a cup of Camp by a Sikh servant (nowadays, they both have a cup of their own). In this new mural and plaque at the newly-christened “Scots Corner” (see final image), a Scottish soldier plays the pipes over a list of the “Battalion Of The Dead”, Scottish volunteers from the (modern) UVF. The list is led by William “Big Bill” Campbell, who has had a small plaque in his memory at this spot since (at least) 2014. Preacher and DUP politician George Seawright (see A Crown Of Life) is also included – he was born in Glasgow in 1951.
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This contemplative WWI soldier is the mural part of a new memorial commemorating fallen UVF volunteers from Scotland. On the shutters of the Pizza Cabin on the Shankill.
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Extramural Activity 