Voters in the Irish Republic go to the polls today (October 26th, 2018) to elect a president. Northerners cannot vote, though a referendum to allow residents of Northern Ireland to vote in presidential elections is expected in 2019 (BelTel). Nonetheless, these posters for Sinn Féın candidate Lıadh Ní Rıada are at the Glen Road/Falls Road roundabout in west Belfast.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Thomas Ashe was born on January 12th, 1885, in County Kerry, into a bi-lingual household. He became an Irish teacher in Lusk and joined the Gaelic League and the Irish Volunteers, commanding the Fingal battalion during the Easter Rising. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, which in fact lasted only a year. He was released but soon charged and convicted with sedition, and died on hunger strike on September 25th, 1917, after an “inhuman and dangerous” attempt at force-feeding by the authorities (WP). See also Tomás Ághas.
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“First round” Brexit negotiations between Europe and the UK required an agreement in principle on the land border between Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (a member of the EU). President of the European Council Donald Tusk went to Dublin at the beginning of December to declare that as a member Ireland (and prime minister Leo Varadkar) would have a veto over whether “sufficient progress” had been made (Irish Times), which the the Sınn Féın board above urged him to use. The DUP objected to any “special status/stádas speısıalta” for NI, rejecting the wording proposed on December 4th. An agreement was reached on December 8th which would (somehow) both preserve Northern Ireland’s similarity to the rest of the UK without requiring a “hard border” with the Republic.
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IRA volunteer Francis Liggett was shot dead by the British Army during an attempted armed robbery at Royal Victoria Hospital, Falls Road in 1973 (Sutton) while local Sinn Féin member Paddy Brady was shot by the UFF while at work in 1984 (Sutton | An Phoblacht). They are commemorated in the St James memorial garden with the board shown above, featuring two verses from Bobby Sands’s poem Weeping Winds: Oh, Whispering [Whistling, in the original] winds why do you weep/When roaming free you are,
Oh! Is it that your poor heart’s broke/And scattered off afar?
Or is it that you bear the cries/Of people born unfree,
Who like your way have no control/Or sovereign destiny?
Oh! Lonely winds that stalk [walk] the night/To haunt the sinner’s soul/
Pray pity me a wretched lad/Who never will grow old.
Pray pity those who lie in pain/The bondsman and the slave
And whisper sweet the breath of God/Upon my humble grave.
The board is similar in design to the painted one it replaces, except that Éire was at the centre rather than the “SF” logo.
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Two final pieces from the #ae17 election campaign. Above, a somewhat menacing crocodile waits impatiently for an Irish-language act: “Meas do chách – Acht na Gaeılge anoıs!” (“Respect for all – Irish language act now!”) The white circle on red is the logo of An Dream Dearg, an Irish-language campaign (Irish News); the crocodile stems from DUP leader Arlene Foster’s response to Sınn Féın demands for an Act, when she said “If you feed a crocodile, they’re going to keep coming back and looking for more.” (BBC-NI | video at RTÉ) She later said she regretted the remarks as they allowed her to be demonised during the campaign (BelTel).
Below, Saoradh’s plea that “A vote for Stormont equals a vote for British rule – Don’t vote! Reject the quislings and Brit collaborators.” (See also: Stormont Must Go)
Previously: Previously from the 2017 Assembly Elections: Tapaıgh An Deıs | End The Age Of the Dinosaurs | Keep Belfast Clean | Hard Border | The Burning Issue
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Not a phoenix or a bonfire but a pile of sterling going up in flames, a reference to the recent RHI (“Renewable Heat Incentive” rather than Sinn Féin’s promised “Respect, honesty, integrity”) scandal which was a cause of yesterday’s election. Whether it will make any difference to the electorate will be seen today, as counting gets under way in the 2017 Assembly Elections.
Previously from #ae17 (Assembly Elections 2017): Tapaıgh An Deıs | End The Age Of the Dinosaurs | Keep Belfast Clean | Hard Border
Previously about RHI: Heating Empty Barns … Killing Kids
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Sınn Féın representatives Paul Maskey (above), Gerry Adams, and Martin McGuinness are photoshopped into these beverage-themed, Irish-language puns outside the ‘Falls Rolls’ bakery: Ár tae will come, Tıocfaıgh [sic] ár látte, and Mocha-ra.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Anti-Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann graffiti in Beechmount Street beneath a Sınn Féın banner using Martin Luther King to advocate for non-violent protest (featured previously in Always Avoid Violence).
See also: The F-Bomb.
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Among the sweepings at the site of the former RUC barracks are placards from Sinn Féin Youth (Fb), one bearing a (never-before-seen) Red Power flag (WP). “End social injustice”.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Paul Maskey supports votes for ALL Irish citizens.” Eligibility for voting in the Presidential election is based on eligibility for voting in Dáıl elections, which requires being a resident in a Dáıl constituency. As such, non-residents – whether in Northern Ireland or elsewhere – are not eligible. The matter was among those take up by the recent Constitutional Convention and a reply from the government is expected by the end of May (WP). Maskey is the incumbent for West Belfast in May’s Westminster election.
On the railings of the shuttered O’Connor’s/Rebel’s Rest, Falls Road, Belfast.
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Extramural Activity 