“Oppression breeds resistance”, in the form of Leila Khaled and an IRA gunman, and a clenched fist in the colours of the Palestinian flag. This is a new pro-Gaza mural in McQuillan Street with Irish “Tıocfaıdh ár lá” [our day will come] and Arabic “يومنا قادم” [our day is coming] (and in the shields “Saoırse” and “حرية”[freedom]).
The artist is DD Walker (“Rebel Rebel”), who painted the “Against Established Law” Che Guevara mural last (2013) October which this replaces.
Another pro-Palestinian piece, sponsored by éırígí, just round the corner from Where Is The World? Israeli ground operations in Gaza yesterday (July 22) entered their third week.
Gazans flee ahead of smiling soldiers from homes set ablaze by a tank flying the Israeli flag. This new mural on the international wall associates the current Israeli invasion of Gaza (Operation Protective Edge) with the US/South Vietnamese attack on the village of Trang Bang during the Vietnam war by modelling itself on Nick Út’s 1972 Pulitzer prize-winning photograph for the Associated Press of villagers fleeing a napalm bombing (WP). [Authorship is disputed – it might be by Nguyễn Thành Nghệ – see World Press Photo.]
On the ground in front of the mural are tealights that were lit in memorial and solidarity.
“Peace is more difficult than war. We were not scared as we resisted; we will not be scared when we make peace.” Turkish-born Kurdistan Workers’ Party founder Abdullah Öcalan has been in prison since 1999, during which time he has changed from advocating violence to advocating a political solution to the Kurdish situation in Turkey. (WP) The conflict has resulted in a minimum of 45,000 deaths. (WP)
The mural was launched on Sunday (2014-07-06); it replaces the Sands Family mural. Below is a shot from January 2017 showing damage to the mural.
INLA volunteers Paul McCann, Matt McLarnon, Danny Loughran, and Gino Gallagher are commemorated in a new board unveiled today (2014-06-29) on Northumberland Street. The work shows the four in uniform against a backdrop of Divis flats, St. Peters, and the plough in the stars. Information about the deaths of each of the four can be found via this IRSP page. The IRSP/Teach na Fáilte sponsored the piece, which is by Fra Maher and covers over the centre part of the yellow IRSP mural. Maher also did the anti-fascist/Spanish civil war mural at the left edge of the image above.
Her Majesty’s Prison Belfast, better known as The Crumlin Road Gaol, was visited by the Queen on Tuesday (2014-06-24), probably not at the beckoning of this advertisement on the corner of Divis and Northumberland streets, next to the mural of Kieran Nugent and Brendan Hughes. One of the former residents of the jail, Martin McGuiness, showed the Queen around (which not everyone was happy with – The Guardian).
The jail opened in 1846 (under Queen Victoria, during the Hunger), closed in 1996, was transferred to OFM/dFM in 2003, and opened to the public in 2007 (DSI). Other notable prisoners include seven militant suffragettes (among them Dorothy Evans and Madge Muir, arrested for possession of explosives BBC – includes 6 min. audio | Belfast Suffragettes | WRDA), Eamon De Valera, Bobby Sands, Ian Paisley, and Michael Stone (WP), as well as Tom Mitchell and Phil Clarke, elected to Westminster in 1955 for Sinn Féin while still in prison (An Phoblacht).
Audio tour of the prison from CultureNI | Video footage of the Queen’s visit from The Telegraph.
The (unattributed) photo on which the Kieran Nugent mural is based in included below. See also this BBC video.
The images below (taken in January 2014) show part of the old Kevin Lynch mural revealed by the removal of the board that was part of the Marian Price mural (featured previously). The new version of the Lynch mural – shown above – is almost identical to the previous one. It shows Lynch’s likeness framed by the red star and yellow background of the IRSP (Irish Republican Socialist Party) – see also the Mickey Devine mural in Mount Pottinger.
A new mural on the International Wall combines two current events. One is the furore surrounding the recent description of Islam as “satanic” by Belfast pastor James McConnell (Tele) and a ‘Rally Against Racism’ that took place on Saturday (31st) (Tele). The middle of the mural reads “Respect and defend our Muslim brothers + sisters – kardeslik azadi”.
The other is the death of Maya Angelou (WP), who died this past Wednesday (May 28th). Angelou is pictured in the top half of the mural with Muhammad Ali along with a quote: “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the past inaccessible.”
In the bottom half appear Padraıg Pearse and James Connolly and a line from the Proclamation of the Irish Republic: “Cherish all the children of the nation equally.”
Extramural Activity 