In response to the protests at the soccer match between Northern Ireland and Israel (described yesterday) the poster above appeared in the Village: an Ulster Banner with the 6-pointed star (for the six counties) turned into a Star Of David.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06151 X06152 glenmachan st
Northern Ireland last night beat Israel 3-nil in a soccer “friendly” at Windsor Park. Gael Force Art took to Sliabh Dubh (Black Mountain) to support Palestinians and the BDS Movement, saying there’s “nothing friendly” about Israel’s human rights record (the full GFA statement is here). Other protests – and counter-protests – took place elsewhere in the city (BelTel).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06150 X06149 X06148 X06399 #BDS free palestine
Saoradh (web | Fb | tw) have added a pro-Palestine mural with the slogan “Resistance is not terrorism” to the Falls Road at the old Linden Street (replacing TMN’s homage to Vaughan Bodē).
See also: RNU Stands With Palestine.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04987
“This is what a so called united Ireland would look like” – attacks on pro-Israeli murals in interface areas (in this case, Beverley Street, between the Shankill and the Falls.) This is the latest attack on the Patterson mural just off Northumberland Street (the Battle Of Britain mural was also damaged – Irish News). The mural was previously defaced, also by burning, in June 2016 (not 2017 as on the mural) – see Where Is The Reconciliation? – and graffitied in March 2017 (BBC-NI). The title of the post is part of the line at the bottom, from Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the burial of Patterson’s ashes in 2014.
For the original posts on the mural, see Father Of The Israeli Army and Operation Lion.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04982
The Republican Network For Unity (RNU) affirm their solidarity with Palestine over the recent deaths during the March Of Return (see also His Land, His Legs, His Life) with a new mural showing an Israeli hand smothering a Palestinian face. Here is the RNU’s statement on the recent deaths in Gaza. “RNU in west Belfast” and “End internment” are from the ‘Free Tony Taylor’ mural that this board covers over.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04980 northumberland st
The Great March Of Return was a six-week protest by Palestinians in Gaza. Most protestors at the border fence with Israel were non-violent but there are reports of some with rocks, burning tyres, Molotov cocktails on a kite, and an AK-47 (WP). It ended (officially – incidents have continued) on May 15th, Nakba Day, the “day of the catastrophe”, meaning the displacement of Palestinians in the 1948 war. The protest demanded that refugees be allowed to return home – there are 1.1 million living in Gaza. During the protest more than 100 Palestinians died, many by live fire by Israeli forces, and more than 13,000 were injured. According to the mural above, “It’s time the Irish Government show some humanity and act for the Palestinian people. 1. Officially recognise the state of Palestine. 2. Impose economic sanctions on Israel. 3. End all diplomatic ties with the apartheid state. Boycott Israel, an apartheid state.”
The wheelchair protester shown on the right is double amputee Saber Al-Ashkar. He has not, however, been reported dead, as the text below the image (and reports on Twitter and elsewhere) suggests: “They took his land, his legs, and finally his life.” The death might refer to another such protestor Fadi Abu Salah, who was killed in May (Alaraby) (or Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, who was shot in December 2017 – Independent obituary). The UN Commissioner for Human Rights called the killing “incomprehensible” (Guardian); an internal IDF investigation found that Abu Thuraya was not shot by Israeli snipers (Times Of Israel).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04957 [X04948] [X04956]
Óglach Charlie Hughes was O.C. of PIRA D Company (“the dogs”) in west Belfast. He was killed in March 1971 as part of the feud between the OIRA and the Provisionals. PIRA volunteers, including Charlie and cousin Brendan Hughes (“The Dark”), had burned down OIRA drinking den The Burning Embers, across from Charlie’s house on Balkan Street, and were moving on to The Cracked Cup on Leeson Street, but were met with gunfire. Hughes was killed later that night, after a ceasefire had been agreed, by a single shot (WP | a 2002 account by The Dark). The mural replaces the small ‘1921’ tarp (see Do Not Touch).
The other figure shown is Palestinian skyjacker Leila Khaled (see also Oppression Breeds Resistance).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04849 [X04850] X04851 X04852 for what died the sons of Róısín Dubh
This graffiti is at the park end of Cliftonville Avenue.
An earlier piece of graffiti, “DHLA”, has stood for “Divis Hoods Liberation Army” but we’re a long way from Divis.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05997 X05996
“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.” (Nelson Mandela) Nobel peace prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s portrait has been x-ed out on the Frederick Douglass mural on Northumberland Street, in protest at her failure to speak out, from her position as Myanmar’s State Counsellor, against the persecution of the Muslim Rohingya population by the Myanmar military. For images of the full mural, see Liberating Minds (and for John Lewis’s addition at the expense of Rosie The Riveter, see As I Would Not Be A Slave, So I Would Not Be A Master).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017/2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04650 X04649 X09749
Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, will address the regional parliament today, the first time since the referendum on October 1st and the violence that accompanied it. He threatened to announce an independent Catalonia within 48 hours of the poll, but today might in fact be the day (Irish Times | Guardian).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04606 divis st
Extramural Activity 