The Irish Republican Prisoners Committee (IRPC) is currently without any web or social-media presence, but it recently mounted this board in Northumberland Street, Belfast. As with all post-Agreement murals for republican prisoners, it uses only barbed wire and not the lark.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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From Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, 1953: “The strangest victory in all history: Heremon [Érimón] O’Neill racing a rival chieftain for possession of Ireland became the first man to touch its soil by cutting off his own hand and hurling it ashore! His sacrifice made Heremon the first king of Ulster, 1015 B.C. The red hand of Ulster is still the provinces coat of arms thousands of years later.” Most people believe it not.
Newtownards Road, east Belfast
From left to right: For Freedom Alone | As Long As 100 Of Us Remain Alive | Loyalist East Belfast | The Strangest Victory In All History | Ulster’s Past Defenders | Nationality is included in Loyalist East Belfast | Ulster’s Present Defenders | Freedom Corner
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Friz’s (web) ‘Gatekeeper‘ in Joys Entry, painted in 2015 for Culture Night, is suffering from the decay of the boards over the windows.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Action Against Drugs (AAD) is a anti-drugs organisation of former IRA members and perhaps using IRA weapons. The ‘recruitment’ graffiti and warning to drug-dealers shown above is at the junction of Albert Street and Divis Street in west Belfast.
For more in the graffiti war against dealers, see 2017’s U’ll Do Nottin! and 2018’s Drug Dealers Will Be Shot.
For the mental health board, see Keep Ahead With Your Mental Health.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Glentoran FC’s emblem features a cock (similar to the rooster on Le Coq Sportif, which made the team’s strip from 1996-1999) and its slogan is “le jeu avant tout” (“the game before/above all). The sources of the French influence is unknown. In the mural above, from outside the Oval, he gives “East Belfast” the boot.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here are two versions of CS Lewis’s character of Aslan, from The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe and the rest of the Chronicles Of Narnia,one by Glen Molloy in Bawnmore (alongside The Night King from Game Of Thrones) and the other by Alan Burke in Townsley Street (near Metal Work).
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This mural forms a pair with Ulster’s Past Defenders in the middle of Newtownards Road’s ‘Freedom Corner’. The present defenders are the UDA/UFF; the past defenders were the UDR, and before them, the B Specials, (and before them, Cuchulainn – 2005 and 1992). Both pieces were repainted in 2016 after the previous murals disintegrated (see Freedom Corner for possible causes).
“The UDA was formed in 1971 as an umbrella for loyalist vigilante groups being formed. There role to defend protestant community from IRA violence. They remain today. The UFF was formed in 1973 as military group for the UDA to defend protestants from acts of Irish Republican violence over 30 yrs of conflict.”
From left to right: For Freedom Alone | As Long As 100 Of Us Remain Alive | Loyalist East Belfast | The Strangest Victory In All History | Ulster’s Past Defenders | Nationality is included in Loyalist East Belfast | Ulster’s Present Defenders | Freedom Corner
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Copyright © 2018 Extramural Activity
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No idea about either the original or the modification – possibly to do with Ed Balls Day, April 28th? Please comment/e-mail if you know more.
Update: Based on the comment from ‘anonymous’, the original was the symbol of Generation Identity, a lambda in a circle (discussed previously in Identity Movement Ireland), which was then blotted out by the anarchists and further modified with “Edd Balls” by a wag.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Giant lettering by RACE (RASER) and AKEN from TMN crew (The Most Nasty) above the writing on the Cupar Way “peace” line.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here are two more images (in addition to yesterday’s) of the new mural of the old Smithfield Market in Gresham Street by KVLR and JMK. According to the Glenravel booklet on the market, its creation goes back to about 1770. The title of the post is how the market was described in when a cover was added in the late 1800s (CultureNI); the booklet contains a directory from 1880 that includes tinsmiths, a basket maker, a cooper, and a hackler (a flax-comber).
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Extramural Activity 