Building An Ireland Of Equals

The aspect of Cave Hill commonly known as Napoleon’s Nose is shown sheltering the people of Newington, surrounded by heroes and emblems of the past – Bobby Sands, Wolfe Tone, and in the centre, Winifred Carney. This republican mural is both internally directed (at Newington and the New Lodge) and externally, being on the main Antrim Road (Oceanic avenue, on the side of the Sinn Féin office) which is a main artery between the city and points north.

“Ag aontú Caıtlıceach, Protastúnach agus Easaontóırí.” – “Uniting Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter.” In An Argument On Behalf Of The Catholics Of Ireland (1791), Wolfe Tone of the United Irishmen wrote, “To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country, these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman, in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, these were my means.”

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Be Still And Know You Are Good

2014-06-14 BeStillFish+

Flyer in Hill Street: A water-colour fish and a modified version of “I will be still and know you are god” – the designer of the flyer omitted the “I will” and someone has inserted an extra “o” by hand, changing “god” to “good”.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Sacred & The Profane

2014-08-06 BeechmountWindow+

In the window of a house on Beechmount Avenue/Ascaıll Ard Na bhFeá the Blessed Virgin Mary is joined by support for Gaza and Palestine and commemorations of the 1981 hunger strikers, particularly Mickey Devine, who died on August 20th.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Hey Mr DJ

2014-06-25 DJ+

This mural is on the Ardoyne-Glenbryn “peace” wall, on the Alliance Avenue side, showing a DJ with two turntables and a crowd of local (cross-community?) youths: Beth, Mat(?), Jake, Brittany, Trevor, George, Alyssa, Jessica, Anna, Corbin, Maria, Julia, Mary, Rachel, Emily, El(?), Jennifer. If you have any information about this mural, please comment or send an e-mail.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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End The Siege On Gaza

2014-08-08 MarketsGazaDetail+

Tears of blood flow from a boy’s face, shrouded by a Palestinian flag and behind barbed wire. The shot below of the full mural (launched 2014-07-29) includes a quote from Malcolm X: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the oppressor.”

2014-08-08 MarketsGazaFull+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02058 X02059 free The Market community supports Palestine.

Only When The Dusk Starts To Fall

2014-06-15 NStreetArcOwl+

2014 is the tenth anniversary of the fire in the North Street Arcade (2004-04-17). The image above, which is one and a half storeys tall, is part of a recent (June) work by Matt Sewell (Twitter | Web | Fb). His work is at the Donegall Street end of the arcade; Andy Council’s Belfast Phoenix is at the other end; see that post for more about the fire.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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St James Supports Gaza

2014-08-04 StJamesFriendsPalestine+

A Claddagh ring connotes friendship (caırdeas – sadaaka), love, and loyalty, here between Ireland and Palestine. The band is composed of their two flags. The wide shot, below, shows the adjacent “Free Palestine” mural, also featuring the Palestinian flag.

Replaces a Che stencil and a Cliftonville-Celtic mural

2014-08-04 StJamesFreePalestine+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02041 X02040 Path to peace free palestine

Third-Class Citizens

2014-08-05 HughSmyth+

Hugh Smyth OBE was born in the Woodvale area and represented the upper Shankill as an Independent Unionist and then a Progressive Unionist in Belfast City Council for forty-one years, until the year before his death in May 2014, including a term as Lord mayor in 1994-1995 – he is pictured in the main image (above) in his mayoral robes.

The portrait on the right (shown solo below) was taken by Bobbie Hanvey and is kept in a Boston College archive; more from the archive of 50,000 images can be seen at BC.edu and on Flickr.

As the quote (shown in the final image below) indicates, his politics were oriented towards the working class: “Historically, Unionist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were first class citizens…  and without question people believed them. Historically, Republican/Nationalist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were second class citizens… and without question the people believed them. In reality, the truth of the matter was that we all, Protestant and Catholic, were third class citizen, and none of us realised it!” The board was officially launched on June 19th.

Replaces 90 Years Of Resistance.

2014-08-05 HughSmythPhoto+

2014-08-05 HughSmythQuote+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02044 X02045 X02046 canmore st 40 years’ service to the people of the shankill 1939-2014

Viva Palestine

2014-08-04 VivaPalestineFlags+

Here are two images of the “Viva Palestine” message on Slıabh Dubh/Black Mountain (Visual History), the first with Palestinian, Irish, and other flags in the foreground, the second shows the Springhill memorial flying a black flag in the foreground.

2014-08-04 VivaPalestineBlackFlag+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Popular Front

2014-07-28 ArabicPhoenix+

The ‘Vote Tommy Doherty’ portion of this RNU mural on Northumberland Street (Visual History) has been replaced with a pro-Palestinian message – a clenched fist in the colours of Palestine between the emblems of the RNU and the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02029 arabic tıocfaidh ár lá our day will come
يومنا قادم