A fire was lit at the base of the John Henry Patterson mural (see Operation Lion | Godfather Of The Israeli Army) on Beverley Street, prompting the notice on the railings above: “Where is the equality? This historically significant artwork, was attacked & defaced by Irish Republican racists? Where is the reconciliation?”
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Palestinian prisoner and hunger striker Bilal Kayed last week called off his hunger strike after 71 days of fasting, after reaching an agreement with his Israeli captors for his release in December, after a six-month “administrative’ extension to his original 14.5 year sentence (Alternative News). Hence the slogan “End internment, end administrative detention” (alongside “Free all political prisoners” and the IRPWA emblem). Update: Kayed released 2016-12-12.
The mural is at the right-hand end of the so-called International Wall in west Belfast. For the controversy over the painting of the mural adjacent to the historical panels on the rest of the wall, see The World Did Gaze In Deep Amaze.
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Towards the end of July, the IRPWA began painting a POW mural for the right end of the wall, space that the historical painters hoped to use for a gallery of international figures inspired by Irish resistance — Leonard Peltier, Marcus Garvey, V.I. Lenin,W.E.B. DuBois, Mahatma Gandhi, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Muammar Gaddafi, Yassar Arafat, General Giap, and Sukhdev Thapar (see the final image, below) — under the title “And the world did gaze with deep amaze” (a line from the song The Foggy Dew).
This would have provided a book-end to the mural similar to the gallery of early nationalist figures at the left-hand end. The IRPWA whitewashed the end of the wall (see the third image, below) and commenced work on a POW mural (leading to two sets of painters working at the wall in late July (second image)). In the end, only Leonard Peltier was painted, in the same style as Wolfe Tone. And later, Seany McVeigh’s Pearse Surrenders To The Developers was added (see the fourth image).
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“¡No pasarán! In memory of the International Brigades and the men from Derry, Donegal & Tyrone who served in the struggle against fascism in defence of the Spanish Republic 1936-38. … I measc laochra lucht oıbre go raıbh a n-aınm – May their names [name] be among the heroes of labour. Erected by the North-West Spanish Civil War Project, July 2013.”
For brief biographies of those named, see Ireland Spanish Civil War. For some background see DonegalDiaspora. The plaque is above the Unite offices in Carlisle Road, Derry.
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A confederate flag (strictly, the battle flag of the Army Of Northern Virginia) with skull (with an eye-patch!) and cross-bones alongside a “King William III Prince of Orange” flag.
Island Street, east Belfast
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Three images of flags. In the one above, flags are seen on either side of the Short Strand “peace” line: the Irish tricolour and the flag of Palestine stand over a Union flag hung next to the local bonfire site.
The second is a “flag of flags” in Tullycarnet – the Union flag, the cross of St. George, St. Andrew’s Saltire, and the Ulster banner, all together around the red hand of Ulster and the crown, and “No Surrender”.
In the third, the flag of Hamas flies above the red-and-yellow Starry Plough of the Irish Republican Socialist Party in Derry’s Bogside.
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The bombs of the US, NATO, and the EU drive fleeing refugees into a circle of barbed wire in this new mural on Beechmount Avenue: “Capitalism & imperialism created refugees! Syria • Iraq • Afghanistan • Libya … Stop wars not people!!!” A report in Saturday’s New York Times on the migrant crisis cites a June UN report when it asserts that “There are more displaced people and refugees now than at any other time in recorded history — 60 million in all”.
Previously: Refugees Welcome
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X03143 ascaill ard na bhfeá antifa international
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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Stephen (or Stephan) “Steve” Kaczynski will go before a Turkish court on September 18th on charges of membership of the Marxist-Leninist ‘Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front’ (DHKP-C). (WP) In April, members of the group took over a courtroom and held a state prosecutor hostage; when special forces stormed the building, the hostage and two of his captors died. (Independent) Kaczynski, a freelance journalist from Scotland, is alleged to be instrumental in financing the group. Alternatively, (according to various newspaper reports) he is an undercover agent of the Germans (Daily Sabah) or the British (Brian Shaw). He was on hunger-strike in protest at the conditions in Maltepe #3 from June 25th to August 12th.
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X02803 rnu in west belfast are today leading the way in combating anti-social behaviour reclaiming republican values fighting the benefits cuts tackling the increased drug problem exposing the slum landlords rebuilding community pride the only secure community is an organised one socialism communism red star phoenix
Above is a local interpretation of Robert Ballagh’s 1970 rendering of Goya’s The Third Of May 1808 in Glenfada Park, Derry/Doıre, site of four deaths on Bloody Sunday, 1972.
The original commemorates Spanish resistance to the forces of Napoleon (WP). For this Derry version, features from the city’s skyline – the Guildhall, St. Columb’s Cathedral, and an intact Governor Walker column – have replaced the original’s outline of Madrid, as well as an insignia of the Paras on the arm of a soldier.
For Ballagh’s original (“1970”) version and a description and video of the launch see bloodysundaymarch.org. Here is an Eamonn McCann lecture on the political history of the Goya painting. Until recently, the piece above was adjacent to a version of Picasso’s Guernica.
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X02720 Jim Wray, William McKinney, Gerard McKinney, Gerard Donaghy paratroop regiment
Extramural Activity 