James Connolly

Liberating Minds

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Here is the completed Frederick Douglass mural in Northumberland Street. With quotes from …

  • Douglass himself (“It is easier build strong children than to repair broken adults.”)
  • Abraham Lincoln (“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”)
  • Angela Davis (“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.”)
  • Muhammad Ali (“Why should I drop bombs on brown people in Vietnam while so-called negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs …”)
  • Steven Biko (“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”)
  • MLK (“I have a dream … black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.””)
  • Bob Marley (“Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race.”)
  • Nelson Mandela (“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”)
  • Paul Robeson “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I made made [sic] my choice. I had no alternative”,
    and
  • (without attribution) James Connolly (“The worker is the slave capitalist society, the woman [female worker] is the slave of that slave.”)

Northern Visions TV documentary on the production and launch of the mural.

See also: in-progress shots, in Frederick Douglass.

Update: John Lewis was added in 2014; see As I Would Not Be A Slave.

Update: Aung San Suu Kyi X’ed out in 2017; see The Freedom Of Others.

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Copyright © 2013/2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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thank you sister Rosa Parks Harriet Tubman Barack Obama Betty Sinclair Mary Ann McCracken Aung San Suu Kyi, Haitian Revolution, Chief Joseph, El Salvador, CoMadres

Forgotten In Life, Remembered In Death

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2013-12-14 QuinnStone+

Trade unionist John Quinn, who helped found the ITGWU, died in 1935 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Milltown. Last weekend (December 14th, 2013) a new headstone was unveiled. As can be seen in the image above, Quinn was fortunate to escape the sinking of the Titanic – he boarded as a fireman in the Belfast crew, but a team of firemen had already been hired in Southampton.

There is a detailed account of Quinn’s life and the process that brought about the new headstone  at the Belfast Telegraph.

Previously on ExtramuralActivity: ITGWU mural – Till Labour Knows No Master | Larkin – We Only Want The Earth | Winifred Carney & Nora Connolly | Lockout

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01480 1876-1935 beloved husband of margaret pollard native of sailortown seaman docker  a participant in the 1907 dockers and carters strike and one of the founder members friend and colleague of james larkin, winifred carney, james connolly, 4 april 1912 Forgotten in life, remembered in death daughter bridget son robert nephew gerard

We Defy You!

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“If you leave us at liberty we will kill your recruiting, save our poor boys from your slaughter-house, and blast your hopes of Empire. If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and, mayhap, raise a force that will destroy you. We defy you! Do your worst!” – James Connolly, Courtsmartial And Revolution, 1914.

CNR west Belfast, possibly St James’s. Please get in touch if you know the precise location.

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The Birth Of The Irish Republic

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2013-04-10 EasterRising+

Walter Paget’s Birth Of The Irish Republic shows James Connolly lying injured on a stretcher, being tended to by Elizabeth O’Farrell (? WP), while Pearse, Clarke, and Plunkett (and Ceannt?) stand by. Detail (taken in 2004) just below …

The Birth Of The Irish Republic has its own Visual History page.

See previously: Easter Rising – Whiterock Road mural depicting Countess Markievicz outside the GPO during the Rising.

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g.p.o. dublin 1916 easter rising

40

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A new mural was launched on Sunday (Oct 7th, 2012) on the international wall, presenting five local (lower Falls) volunteers who died at this time forty years ago (during 1972): Daniel McAreavey, Joseph McKinney, Jimmy Quigley, John Donaghy, Patrick Maguire (real name Patrick Pendleton). Maguire, McKinney and Donaghy died together in an explosion (Oct 10); Quigley (Sept 29) and McAreavey (Oct 6) were shot. For further details of the how these five met their deaths, see among others Lost Lives by McKittrick et al. (Archive.org | Amazon UK | US). Biographies of the five begin at 7m46s in this history of D Company. Quigley holds a copy of James Connolly’s 1910 pamphlet Labour in Irish History.

Image of the mural in development.

Video of the parade and unveiling on youtube.

Takes the place of the Raıdıó Fáılte mural on the International Wall.

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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00671 danny, joe, jimmy, JD, paddy, “They shall be spoken of among their people and the generations shall remember them and call them blessed” – PH Pearse from ‘The Mother‘

No Right In Ireland

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“The British government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland.” (Last Statement, 1916)

“James Connolly 1868-1916 James Connolly was born in June 5th 1868. In 1810 he became organiser for the Irish Transport And General Workers Union in Belfast. In 1913 he co-founded the Irish Citizen Army. He was one of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation and commanded HQ in the GPO during the 1916 Rising. He was executed by the British on May 12th 1916.”

“Nora Connolly O’Brien 1893-1981 Nora Connolly was the 2nd daughter of James Connolly. Nora was a member of Cumann Na mBan and the Gaelic League in Belfast. She played an organisational role in the ICA in the run up to the 1916 Rising. She was a trade unionist and remained so throughout her life.”

The mural was launched on May 3rd.

For the gallery above the mural, see On The Brink Of Sectarian Disaster.

Clondara St, west Belfast.

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Our Demands Most Moderate Are

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The sixteen-year old Sınn Féın Trade Union Dept mural has been replaced (though the plaque remains in the top right-hand corner) with another mural featuring James Connolly but with a new quote, from his 1907 poem: “Our demands most moderate are/We only want the earth.” The Irish Worker headline reads “Belfast ITGWU organiser Connolly gets 905 votes municipal elections” referring to the municipal elections of 1913 – Connolly stood in the Dock Ward (SIPTU).

For the board above, see Women in Struggle.

Rockmount Street, Belfast.

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Sınn Féın Trade Union Dept

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Fifteen years after painting, the Rockmount Street mural of Connolly and Liberty Hall is showing its age. Previously seen in 2006.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Join RSYM

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Republican Socialist Youth Movement graffiti with stencil of Connolly and (defunct) internet address (Fb | ig) at the site of the old Andersonstown RUC barracks.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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One Big Union

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2011 image of the ITGWU/OBU mural previously seen in 2007. The medallions show portraits of Larkin, Connolly, and Carney.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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