lily – Easter

To The People Of Ireland

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The central space in Ardoyne’s Easter Rising centenary wall, combining stencils of the signatories to the Proclamation around a tarp of the document (see In Commemoration Of 1916) has been empty – except for some electoral signs – since 2019’s board marking the centenary of Sınn Féın (see Still The People Spoke). This new tarp returns to the Proclamation and Easter lily and matches the frame of signatories once more.

The last full mural on the wall fell down in 2014 and there does not appear to have been the energy to paint another full mural since then – but perhaps the fading paint around Clarke and Connolly will provoke a complete re-do.

For the stone in the right-hand corner, see the Peter Moloney collection.

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Easter Commemoration

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This RNU (Fb) board calls for attendees at a gathering in Milltown cemetery to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916. The signatories to the Proclamation can be seen above and behing the large Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann gravestone on the right.

Glen Road, on the grounds of the old Andersonstown RUC barracks.

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يومنا قادم

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The title is the Arabic translation of the Irish “Tıocfaıdh ár lá” taken from a Belfast mural, Freedom In Arabic. (“Tıocfaıdh ár lá” is commonly given in English as “our day will come”; Google reverses the Arabic into English as “Our day is coming”.) At the other end of the block (and above Fight The Rich, Feed The Poor) is a French or Spanish “Viva la resistance”; presumably intended to be “Vive la résistance” or “Viva la revolución”. But it’s a principle of interpretation at Extramural that the spelling (or the quality of the art) is not the point when people feel they are not being heard. In this case, the message is clear: “Free Palestine”.

The Easter lily and Palestinian flag with PFLP (Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine) emblem are to the right of Always Anti-Fascist and below the INLA board seen in Serious Trouble.

“RSYM” is the Republican Socialist Youth Movement (Fb).

Durrow Park, Derry.

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Resist!

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The inverted red triangle has become a symbol of support for Palestine and Hamas, apparently because of its use in Hamas videos to indicate Israeli targets being blown up (Middle East Monitor | Al Jazeera video), as though a kind of cross-hairs.

In this Derry art, the red triangle has been given a Banksy-style presentation as the balloon of a child (reminiscent of Girl With Balloon in London and, given the context, Flying Balloon Girl in the West Bank) walking beneath the Lecky Road underpass.

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Always Anti-Fascist

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The Easter lily and the red star mark this graffiti-art-style slogan in Durrow Park, Derry, as republican-socialist; RSYM = Republican Socialist Youth Movement (Fb), IRSP = Irish Republican Socialist Party (web), AFA = Anti-Fascist Action (Fb)). There is a small “Victory to Hamas” graffito to the right.

For the large Arm Saoırse Náısıúnta Na hÉıreann (INLA) board, see Serious Trouble.

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Óglach George McBrearty

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A ceremony to mark the forty-second anniversary of the deaths of IRA volunteers George McBrearty and Charles “Pop” Maguire – shot by the SAS on May 28th, 1981 – was held last Sunday (May 28th) in the garden of remembrance in Linsfort Drive, Creggan (Derry Now). On patrol in Creggan with two other IRA men, McBrearty and Maguire pursued and a car whose driver they suspected of being an SAS soldier and eventually stopped it at the bottom of Couch Road/Southway at the edge of the Brandywell. The driver shot McBrearty as he approached the car and Maguire was shot by the driver and/or by other undercover soldiers from 14th Intelligence who emerged from two other cars. A third volunteer was injured. (Lost Lives 2330)

The “Crann Na Poblachta”/”Tree Of The Republic” – a silver birch – was originally planted in front of the previous mural to George McBrearty mural in Rathkeele Way (see Freedom Fighter For The Republic) (Derry Journal). Both that mural and this one were painted by ‘Bogside Artist‘ Kevin Hasson.

There is a plaque to McBrearty & Maguire near the spot where they were killed on Coach Road/Southway (see M01544).

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Charlatans Wear Dead Men’s Shoes And Rattle Dead Men’s Bones

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Queen’s University’s “Agreement 25” conference wrapped up yesterday with speeches from Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton, Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, Joe Kennedy III, Leo Varadkar, and Rishi Sunak. The anniversary is commemorated slightly differently on Free Derry Corner: “GFA25 – partition is injustice. ‘In the ashes of our broken dreams we’ve lost sight of our goal’, the republic!”

The quotation is from Liam Weldon’s song ‘Dark Horse On The Wind’ (youtube).

For the braille, see A Wall For All.

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Honour Ireland’s Patriot Dead

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There are dozens of Easter Rising commemorations happening this weekend – see Belfast Media for a full calendar. Above is a board for Saoradh’s (web) Easter parade on Saturday 8th. Below is the Falls/D Company gathering.

“National Republican Commemoration Committee Easter commemoration. Unfinished revolution. 2.30 pm Saturday 8th April. International wall, Divis Street, Belfast. Bands in attendance. Honour Ireland’s patriot dead, wear your Easter lily with pride.”

Havana Way, north Belfast.

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Sovereignty, Not Stormont

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This is the scene on the green-spaces on Lecky Road, Derry. The area is heavily trafficked by tourists visiting around Free Derry Corner (Visual History of the front | rear), the People’s Gallery murals (Visual History), the Hunger Strike Memorial, and the Museum Of Free Derry (web). Anti-Agreement groups thus use the area to get their messages across. In today’s post we see “Sovereignty, not Stormont” from the 32CSM (web); an RNU (Fb) board in support of the “Craigavon 2”; “Stop the extradition of Liam Campbell”, probably from Republican Sin Féin (web) – contrary to the board beneath the one showing, Campbell was extradited to Lithuania but his case was dismissed in October on the grounds that the statute of limitations had passed (Sunday World); an IRA nail-up on a light-pole; a “Remember the ten” 40th anniversary commemoration of the 1918 hunger strike, from IRSP/IRSM (web); and an IRPWA (web) board supporting republican prisoners (previously included in British Gaols In Ireland).

Also on the green is an olive tree for unity.

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Gaırdín Na hÉıreann

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Plants provide symbols of, and metaphors for, rebellion. In America, 1775, Paine wrote of the Liberty Tree which Americans must rise to defend against “Kings, Commons and Lords” and Jefferson would later write (in a 1787 letter) that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” In Ireland, the tree of liberty was borrowed for the 1798 rebellion (see Where Did The Seeds Fall?“) and although t more familiar symbol of the 1798 Rebellion is the pike, the shamrock is thought to be included as one of the objects in the Wearing Of The Green: Boucicault’s version begins “Oh, Paddy, dear, an’ did you hear the news that’s goin’ round?/The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish ground.” The lily, of course, is a symbol of the 1916 Rising, though it is shown here growing between sunflowers and a rose.

These painted electrical boxes are in Westrock and Ballymurphy (“Fáılte chuıg Baıle Uí Mhurchú”).

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