On May 8th, 1915, the various brigades of the 36th (Ulster) Division gathered together from all over the province (including some soldiers from Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal) to be reviewed by Major General McCalmont in south Belfast; they then paraded to City Hall (South Belfast Friends Of The Somme Association). To commemorate the event the words “36th Ulster Div” have appeared on Black Mountain above Highfield and Ballygomartin (taking a leaf from the Gael Force Art book). The wide shot, below, is taken in front of Fernhill House in the Glencairn estate, where the Ulster Volunteers paraded in 1914. In July 1915 the 36th would leave for Sussex to continue their training and eventually find themselves at the battle of the Somme in 1916.
This stencil is at the top of Springhill Avenue, painting grounds of Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly and Gael Force Art. Mo Chara is in fact currently working on the Falls Road at McQuillan Street, painting a mural of the GPO in flames in 1916.
“RNU call for the release of Leonard Peltier – http://www.freeleonard.org“. The lower left-hand panel of the RNU spot on Northumberland Street is serving as a changeable notice-board – it was previously The Popular Front.
Peltier has been in jail since 1977, convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975 and sentenced to two life-sentences (WP).
The Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street has been given a facelift, including the blocking-up of a vent on Sands’s left cheek. Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell have been added in place of the 1798 medallions on each side. On the side-wall are Sean McCaughey, ten doves representing the 1981 hunger-strikers, and Long Kesh. Aerosol‘s accordion-player stencil has been also been retained.
Ag sráıd Sevastopol cuımhnıtear ar Bobby Sands ı múrmhaısıú a aithnıtear ar fud an domhaın. Ba scrıbhneoır, file, réabhlóıdí agus díograıseoır Gaeılge é Sands. Fuaır sé bas 5 Bealtaıne 1981 tar éıs 66 lá ar stailc ocraıs. As ucht na dıograıse a thaıspeáın Sands agus a chomhchımí ı leıth fhoglaım na teanga faoı choınníollacha uafásacha Bhlocanna H na Ceıse Fada, spreagadh glúın úr chun dul ı mbun athghabháıl na Gaeılge.
Here at Sevastopol Street Bobby Sands is remembered in a mural which has become world-renowned. Sands, a writer, poet, revolutionary and Gaelic enthusiast, died on May 5th 1981 after 66 days on hunger strike. Sands and his fellow prisoners inspired a new generation to reclaim the Irish language enthusing them by the huge efforts they put into learning Irish in the horrendous conditions on the H Blocks of Long Kesh.
“The way a society treats children reflects not only its qualities of compassion & protective caring but also its sense of justice, its commitment to the future & its urge to enhance the human condition for coming generations.” Words by the United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez De Cuellar in 1987 inscribed on a mural by Margaret McCann and Andrea Redmond in Dunlewey Street in Clonard.