New graffiti art – artist unknown – at the bottom of loyalist Conway Street, next to the Cupar Way “peace” line.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06793 X06794 [X06794] conway st
Break Free, Belfast
Belfast
Derry, Aughrim, Enniskillen, And Ardoyne
Martin Meehan joined the IRA in 1966 and was one of a few IRA volunteers defending Catholics in Ardoyne (Ard Eoın) in August 1969. Rioting did not cease there until the 16th, when British troops were finally deployed to the Crumlin Road to block mobs coming from the Woodvale and Shankill. Meehan resigned after the failure of the IRA to defend Ardoyne, Clonard, and Divis. This Magill article from the time summarises the IRA’s actions as “late, amateur and uncertain”. (Meehan would later rejoin the IRA and PIRA.)
After a few years honoring Seán McCaughey (see Chains And Bonds Have No Part In Us), Martin Meehan’s image (along with an RNU phoenix) is back on the Ardoyne Avenue gable that bears his plaque. The title of this entry post is based on the song “The Night We Burnt Ardoyne“.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06798
Pat And Dan Duffin
The IRA shot dead two members of the British Auxiliaries, Ernest Bolan and John Bales, in Donegall Street in Belfast city centre on April 23rd, 1921. Just before midnight, Pat and Dan Duffin were shot to death by men who entered their Clonard home.
Another brother, John, was upstairs and not harmed and when he approached the scene he found not only his dead brothers but the station dog of the Springfield Road RIC barracks (“GB Kenna“, real name Fr John Hassan).
DeValera led the funeral cortège along the Falls. Joe Devlin would include the Duffin murders in a Westminster speech in June, following the killings in a single night of Alexander McBride, Malachy Halfpenny, and William Kerr (Hansard). The RIC in west Belfast under CI Harrison, DI Nixon, and in this case DI Ferris (Aiken et al.), would continue their killings into 1922 – see The RIC Murder Gang.
“In memory of volunteers Pat and Dan Duffin, murdered by the RIC in their home at 64 Clonard Gardens 23rd April 1921. Erected the by the Greater Clonard Ex-Prisoners Association.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06764
Stormont Can’t Deliver
“Stormont can’t deliver” is a campaign from Lasaır Dhearg (web | tw) with an emphasis on social issues such as child poverty and public housing, to be addressed by a 32-county socialist republic.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06537 X06648 Crocus St
Sydenham For Jesus
“This is a neighbourhood watch area”, says the small sign sandwiched between the UVF East Belfast battalion flag and the “Jesus is alive” placard.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 ı
X06777 X06776
Loyalist Prisoners Of War
This UVF LPOW mural in Inverary Drive, east Belfast, probably dates back to the years after the Agreement, when the release of prisoners from both sides was being implemented between 1998 and 2000. That would make the mural about 20 years old.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 ı
X06778
Cui Cui
A budgie sings in overgrown Donegall Square (friends with a toucan and a dove) – work by STO (ig) next to restaurant 44 Hill Street.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06786 X06785 X06787
End Apartheid
15 year-old Fıan Gerald McAuley was the first member of the IRA to die in the Troubles. He was shot in Waterville Street by a loyalist sniper while helping people move from burned-out homes in Bombay Street, along which the “peace” line separating the Falls and Shankill now runs, overlooking the Clonard Memorial Garden, site of the service for the 50th anniversary of McAuley’s death. In the windows of a nearby house we also see a poster in support of Palestine and a Bobby Sands-Che Guevara hurl.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06759 X06797 X06758
Gang Of Freaks
Seattle artist Ten Hundred (ig) joined Dublin’s Wee Nuls (ig) to paint the wall outside the yard behind the Sunflower in Union Street. Later on, Kev Largey and Nuala extended the piece to the left with three more freaks.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06783 X06780 X06781 X06779 X06782
Wall On Wall
The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 but dividing walls all over the world still stand. Kai Wiedenhöfer’s Wall On Wall exhibition comes to Belfast later in the month (the launch is September 27th at 4 pm), placing images of dividing walls on Belfast’s own dividing wall, the Cupar Way “peace” line. Shown above is the image of the wall in Al Bayya (Baiyya) in the Al Rashid district, part of the 700 km of walls in Baghdad, Iraq (Browse Gallery), which was pasted onto the “peace” line as a trial for the forthcoming exhibition. As usual, it has been vandalised by tourists and their patronising slogans (and political statements: “Hong Kong is doesn’t have to be a part of China!”). Wiedenhöfer’s image of the Occupied Territories was on Free Derry Corner in 2013 (see Ramallah, Israeli City Of Culture) and three images of Belfast were pasted onto the Berlin Wall in 2013 (Irish Times).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
[X06788] X06792 X06790 X06789 X06791
Extramural Activity 