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The Re-Birth Of The Irish Republic

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In addition to the seven signatories of the Proclamation of an Irish Republic, 9 other leaders of the Easter Rising were executed in the wake of the rebellion. The portraits of all 16 are part of the — newly refreshed — mural of Walter Paget’s painting The Birth Of The Irish Republic. The mural now includes a bright red phoenix. (For the original mural, and Paget’s painting, see the painting’s Visual History page.) In order of appearance, the 16 (with links to their WP pages) are …

             (Left-hand side)

  1. John MacBride
  2. Roger Casement
  3. Thomas MacDonagh
  4. Éamonn Ceannt
  5. Thomas Kent
  6. Con Colbert
  7. Michael Mallin
  8. Edward Daly
  9. Michael O’Hanrahan
  10. Willie Pearse
  11. Seán Heuston
    (Right-hand side)
  12. James Connolly
  13. Joseph Plunkett
  14. Patrick Pearse
  15. Tom Clarke 
  16. Seán Mac Diarmada

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03747 andersonstown road provisional government

Music Is Our Drug

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Five images of the St. James Youth mural on Rodney Parade across from the farm: “Music is our drug – R speaker is R dealer” and “Mates do hugs, not drugs”.

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X03835 X03836 X03554 X03555 X03834 [X02937] [X02938] [X02939] [X02940] [X02941] [X02942] dan devine inverness FC ruari dalton all-ireland boxing stephen webb boxer joseph mccall music promoter irish champion dee walsh professional boxer stephen hall snooker bam neeson GAA

Bilal Kayed

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“RNU stands with hunger striker Bilal Kayed”. For more information on this Palestinian prisoner who recently ended his hunger strike, see Administrative Detention. Update: released 2016-12-12.

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It Is Better For Men To Fight And Die

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Shown above is the first of three new boards at Casement Park in west Belfast, named for Roger Casement. Working for the British Colonial Services, Roger Casement wrote extensive reports on the abuse of indigenous people in Congo Free State (1904) and in Peru (1910).

In Congo Free State, King Leopold II of Belgium was using a private force to suppress the locals while extracting rubber; Casement’s report (archive.org) led to the Belgian government taking over Leopold’s operation and creating the Belgian Congo.

In Peru, Casement investigated abuses against the Putumayo indians at the hands of the Peruvian Amazon Company. As a result of his report, the PAC gradually lost business and folded. (WP) Casement was knighted in 1911 for his human rights work, though this title would be stripped shortly before his execution.

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X03723 Andersonstown Rd

Where Did The Seeds Fall?

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This part of the new mural on the International Wall uses the area of Kilmainham jail where most of the leaders of the Easter Rising were executed in order to tie together the blanket protest – Kieran Nugent and Maıréad Farrell are shown with raised fists –  the hunger strikers – including Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan on the ground – and Roger Casement, walking towards the gallows. Casement was executed not in Kilmainham but in Pentonville Prison, England, convicted of treason for his attempts to secure German rifles and machine-guns for the Rising.

Between Bobby Sands and Mickey Devine in the lower centre of the image is a 200th-anniversary stone in Maynooth/Maıgh Nuad(h) of the 1798 rising. A photograph of the stone is available here. “The Tree Of Liberty: What is that in your hand? It is a branch. Of what? Of the tree of liberty. Where did it first grow? In America. Where does it bloom? In France. Where did the seeds fall? In Ireland.”

At the launch (on August 3rd) actor James Doran (see the final image, below) read from Casement’s speech from the dock after his conviction for treason.

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March Against Internment

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The old Nissen huts of Long Kesh are rendered in cartoon style of this ‘march against internment’ poster, which has been plastered over a commercial hoarding on Northumberland Street.

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Howth Gun-Running

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Nora Connolly in her Cumann Na mBan uniform is the centre point of the ‘Howth Gun-Running’ panel in the new mural on the International Wall. Her sister, Ina, is shown to the right, unloading a rifle from a car outside their home in Glenalina Terrace. About 1,500 rifles were smuggled into Ireland on two boats, 900 of them on the yacht, Asgard, shown left-of-centre with Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice aboard (the latter kept a diary of the trip; extracts are included in this RTÉ History Show video). Asgard docked at Howth on July 26th, 1914. (Here is a tcd.ie collection of images of Asgard’s journey; image #53 is the one reproduced in the mural). The other rifles eventually came ashore two weeks later at Kilcoole. (See this RTÉ article for an account of their tortured journey.)

The vintage Mauser rifles were received by members of Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann and Na Fıanna Éıreann (top left of the image above; here is the original photograph). The off-loading took place during the day but when the police and army met the marching volunteers at Clontarf they were able to capture only 19 rifles. As the army regiment involved returned to barracks it was pelted with stones or fruit by a crowd and killed three (with a fourth dying a week later), as recorded on the front page of the Irish Independent in the bottom left.

Below are two in-progress shots, and below those, two shots including the artist, Marty Lyons.

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An Staılc Ocraıs

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“An staılc ocraıs 1981 hunger strike – 35th anniversary march – Sunday 14th August – Assemble Divis tower 2pm”. With portraits of the deceased 1981 hunger strikers; Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan are included even though they died in the 1970s.

On the site of the former Andytown RUC barracks, Falls Road/Glen Road, Belfast.

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An tAos Óg Ag Sıúl

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Some of the people on 35th anniversary march were perhaps among the “Short Strand Youth Against H-Block & Armagh” in 1981 but the speakers at the Dunville Park rally were intentionally drawn from the younger Sinn Féin leaders, including Nıall Ó Donnghaıle from the Short Strand (An Phoblacht).

Here’s Michael McVeigh’s contribution to the Guthanna ’81 project; he was a member of the youth group during the blanket and hunger strikes.

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Young Ireland

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The new mural on the International Wall is book-ended on the left-hand side by a host of Irish nationalists from the centuries before the 1916 Rising, who continue to watch over the unfolding drama of the nationalist cause. In chronological order, the figures depicted are …

  • Theobold Wolfe Tone (1768-1798), the main figure shown above, leader of the United Irishmen and the 1798 rebellion
  • Betsy Gray, female in green, who died in the 1798 rebellion
  • Henry Joy McCraken (1767-1798) second from the left at bottom, leader of the 1798 rebellion in County Antrim, rising on June 6
  • Mary Anne McCracken (1770-1876) on Tone’s cheekbone, political activist and anti-slavery and poverty reformer
  • Robert Emmett (1778-1803) obscured by pole, leader of a revolt in 1803
  • Anna Wheeler (1780-1848), female in purple, feminist author
  • James Fintan Lalor (1807-1849), bottom left, writer and political activist
  • Thomas Davis (1814-1845) small portrait below Gray, organiser of Young Ireland
  • John Mitchel (1815-1875) top row left of the pole, Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation
  • Michael Davitt (1846-1906) third from left at bottom, founder of the Land League and who took part in the Fenian Rising of 1867
  • John Devoy (1842-1928) fourth from left at bottom, one of the Cuba Five, exiled to the U.S. in 1871, and active in all of the Fenian Rising, the 1916 Rising, and the War of Independence

(There is a twelfth figure, in a bowler hat, top left. If you know who this is, please get in touch.)

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