Belfast

International Workers’ Day

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2015-03-29 SHIPDetail+

A new “historical wall feature” was unveiled by the Shared History Interpretive Project (SHIP) on the outside of the Dockers Club in Pilot Street in Sailortown. The new piece is a montage of about 60 images of vintage photographs, a census form, and posters of industrial life. In the top-middle (behind the lamppost) there can be seen an image of the board this one replaces, which featured two carters pulling away a heavy load, similar to the carter in the image above. Another addition in the new work is the inclusion of Billy McMullen (1888-1982) and John Quinn (1876-1935) alongside Winifred Carney (1887-1943), James Connolly (1868-1916), and Jim Larkin (1876-1947). Both McMullen and Quinn are Belfast trades unionists. Quinn’s headstone in Milltown Cemetery was featured previously, in Forgotten In Life, Remembered In Death. More information about all five, as well as photographs of dockers and of the unveiling, can be found at the SHIP web site.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02573 X02574 X02575 “Sharing more than a century of north Belfast’s industrial and maritime heritage” was officially unveiled on Friday 30th January 2015 by Jack O’Connor, General President “SIPTU” and Jimmy Kelly Irish regional secretary “Unite The Union” in the presence of Belfast’s First Citizen, Lord Mayor Councillor Nichola Mallon. Main sponsor Heritage Lottery Fund and generous support from Fyffes, United Molasses, Unite the Union, SIPTU, Unison. a fine fine meal gallaghers snuff itgwu obu the mission to seafarers elders travel liverpool park drive tall ships may day one big union itgwu irish transport general workers

Animals Two By Two

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Children from Botanic Primary school and art students from University of Ulster Student Union painted a series of animal pairs (created by Vikki Lutton) and geometric panels on the wall of the Stranmillis embankment. Above we have wolves, below there are elephants, and in the wide shot, sea lions. ‘In progress’ images from UUSU | P4 schoolchildren.

UUSU was also responsible for the Seamus Heaney mural (The Hunting Heart).

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X02570 X02567 X02569 X02568 uusu christine campbell colm mcparland jessica snoddy vikki lutton claire mcloughlin esther twieg jose varandas terri ogle pbni pact

The Strand Bar

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After adding windows to the downstairs, The Strand Bar has reinstated the mural previously at the front in the form of a painted board (above) showing the original bar in Anderson Street (the current Arran Street), which was attacked by the UVF in 1975 with the loss of six lives. The relative size can be gauged from the wide shot, below. The previous mural can be seen in the bottom two images. For photographs of the original bar, see the BelfastForum.

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Little Monsters

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“Heroin dealers will be shot dead – ONH”. Graffiti on the Falls Road (at the old Linden Street).

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X02597 oglaıgh na héıreann specsavers get two free pairs of kids’ glasses

A Word Of Conjure With

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James Connolly was concerned not just with the political independence of Ireland but its economic independence: both political and economic liberty were required in order for the human being to live freely. The quote in the image above comes from Connolly’s 1897 essay “Socialism & Nationalism”. The economic context is clear when we read a little more broadly:

“To the tenant farmer, ground between landlordism on the one hand and American competition on the other, as between the upper and the nether millstone; to the wage-workers in the towns, suffering from the exactions of the slave-driving capitalist to the agricultural labourer, toiling away his life for a wage barely sufficient to keep body and soul together; in fact to every one of the toiling millions upon whose misery the outwardly-splendid fabric of our modern civilisation is reared, the Irish Republic might be made a word to conjure with – a rallying point for the disaffected, a haven for the oppressed, a point of departure for the Socialist, enthusiastic in the cause of human freedom.” (marxists.org)

Takes the place of Padraig Pearse’s “The fools, the fools …“

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X02581 5th june 1868 – 12th may 1916

Release Leonard Peltier

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“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).

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You Were Born To Stand Out

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The St. John Vianney youth club board in Cooke Street has been replaced with a mural. The elements are the same – the ‘success’ key still unlocks the world in the palm of a hand and the message is “Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?” – but the colour-scheme is now various pinks.

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X02571 support education opportunities friendship

Facelift

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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.

For a full history of the wall, see the Bobby Sands (Sevastopol Street) Visual History page.

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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.

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X02586 X02588 X02587 everyone Republican or otherwise has their own particular role to play our revenge will be the laughter of our children joe mcdonnell i’ll wear no convicts uniform nor meakly meekly serve my time that Britain might make Irelands fight 800 years of crime ira volunteer

Isolation

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The mural of Padraig Pearse’s famous quote (“The fools, the fools …”) at the east end of Brompton Park has been replaced by the stencils above and below from the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (irpwa.com): “Oppose the isolation of Republican prisoners!” and “Stop strip searches!”. The final image is an older but similar stencil from the top of the Whiterock Road.

See also: Scairt Amach | IRPWA | various Maghaberry murals.

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