The pikemen of 1798 go into battle under the flag of the United Irishmen in a detail from a new mural on the Falls Road for the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Below are work-in-progress images showing artists Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly and Bill Bradley.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03126 X03128 X03129 X03132 mcquillan st halberd
At the corner of the Falls Road and Northumberland Street, consumerism and republicanism collide.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03295 X03294
Immaculata amateur boxing club (Fb) (or simply “The Mac”) in the Lower Falls will celebrate its 70th birthday in May this year. This long mural, painted in 2015 and featuring boxing past and present, is in Servia Street, near the club’s Albert Street home.
Previously: Come On The Mac
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03342 X03341 X03343
The plaque above is a new one outside the Andersonstown Social Club, mounted for the centenary of the Easter Rising: 1916-2016 – We serve neither king nor kaiser but Ireland. This plaque was erected to the memory of the men and women who give their lives in the fight for Irish freedom. “Apostles of freedom are ever idolised when dead but crucified when alive” – James Connolly (These are the opening lives of ‘The Men We Honour‘ 1898)
The plaque below is a previously existing one to volunteers from the First Battalion of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade and various other republicans and “also in memory of the civilians who died at the hands of the UDR, RUC, and loyalist extremists”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03280 X03279 south link an chéad chathlán de bhrıogáıd bhéal feırste óglaıgh na héıreann ı ndílchuımhne [ndılchuımhne] ar henderson mcdermott forsythe jordan finucan hall burke fennell rooney fox kane lennon o’callaghan mccartan sands mcdonnell doherty turley magill mckernan mcardle farrell mccracken macbrádaıgh twomey o’rawe mcdonagh ryan black roe mcairt dolan crawford mcauley dempsey best drumm keenan
More “peace” line images today (after yesterday’s repainting of the Cliftonville “peace” line in Blue Sky Thinking): at the end of February work began taking down a section of the 8 foot high wall on the Ardoyne side of the Crumlin Road, separating Ardoyne from the Woodvale area, though the section close to Woodvale and the wall on the Woodvale side remain for now.
The houses on the north side of the road will now be able to see the road and the doors of Holy Cross church (shown above).
The vintage piece of Free Brendan Lillis graffiti shown in the final image survives, just out of picture to the left in the wide shot below.
Here is some BBC-NI footage of the wall being knocked down. Here are Irish Times, NewsLetter and Tele articles on the 2013 NI Executive policy objective of removing the lines by 2023. And here’s an interview with Heather Bellamy, author of Towards A City Without Walls.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03302 X03305 X03306 X03319 this cross stands here to mark the unbroken presence of the passionists and the people at holy cross since 1869 and as a sign of hope
This is a new panel in the RNU (Fb)/Cogús (Fb) mural on Northumberland Street. If you can identify the image or the style, please get in touch. “End forced isolation, end controlled movement, end forced strip searches”.
For previous panels, see Free Stephen Kaczynski | The Popular Front | The Only Secure Community Is An Organised One
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03293 X03292
This new mural of local landmarks — including centrally St. John The Baptist Anglican church — by Fra Maher was erected last November (2015) as part of a re-imaging and re-development project sponsored by the Housing Executive, and joins the art on the Woodbourne police station in brightening up the area — see Only God Can Judge Me.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03274 woodbourne cr wilkommen fáilte maligayang pagdating vitajte welcome witamy welkom bienvenue shalom suffolk stewartstown
The ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition – items from which were shown in Belfast earlier in February (see Revolution 1916) – opened in Dublin this weekend, including two murals (see this An Phoblacht article for one of them). The three painters also painted the mural above for the mini-exhibition in Andersonstown, reproducing the left-hand grouping from Walter Paget’s Birth Of The Irish Republic and putting the proclamation in the background. For Paget’s original oil painting and other version of it, see the painting’s Visual History page.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03278 poblacht na heireann provisional government to the people of ireland
Included in the black taxi tours of the murals of west Belfast is a stop along the Cupar Way “peace” line and an invitation to take a black marker and leave one’s mark. A designated name-tag with “Hello my name is …” was even painted for the purpose – see the image below. Many sign their names while others leave an inspiring slogan. In the image above alone you can read “Build legacies, not walls”; “It is easier to take a life than protect a life – decide you for peace!”; “A wish for peace, a hope for understanding, a belief in love”; “Don’t let the darkness consume you”; “Love lives longer than hate”; and so on. Bromides such as these have elicited the commentary in white from a local graffitist.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03202 X03203 fuck you NOTA none of the above TMN
Actor Leonard Nimoy died on February 27th, 2015. He is best known for the role of Star Trek‘s Spock, a part he played for 49 years. The mural above brings the character from space to the streets, with gold chain and skull hat. “Trek yourself before ya wreck yourself.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03010
Extramural Activity 