physical force

Times Bar Bombing

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A memorial service was held at the Times Bar on Friday June 5th (News Letter) to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the attack on the Times Bar in 1976, in which Edward McMurray and Robert Groves were killed by a republican bomb. (An image of the bombed bar can be found on Xitter.)

Three plaques were added to the memorial garden where the service took place, to William Haddock, James Smyth, and William Flynn. (Compare to 2019.)

As the images from May 10th in the Paddy Duffy Collection show, a painted mural was originally planned for the spot.

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The Fallen Comrades Of The INLA

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Christopher “Crip” McWilliams has been added this new version of the INLA memorial on Northumberland Street (Visual History). McWilliams was a long-time member of the IPLO and was present at the Lenadoon shout-out with the RUC in Lenadoon in which Bonanza McCann died. He joined the INLA while in prison for the 1991 killing of a snooker-hall manager (Independent) and in 1987 was the gunman in a team of three that killed the LVF’s Billy Wright in the H-Blocks (IRSN | Cory Report (pdf) | MacLean Report (pdf)).

The info board in the final image was originally mounted in 2014 to accompany the version painted on a board which featured Loughran, McLarnon, McCann, and Gallagher, and updated in 2019 for the printed version which added McElkerney.

For images and video from the launch on May 17th, see El Norte De Irlanda.

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God Won’t Save You, James Reid

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The UVF’s James Reid was arrested in 2022 (Crime World) and is currently awaiting trial on charges of blackmail and cocaine possession and distribution. His attempt to have the charges thrown out was rejected at the start of February (BelTel).

These graffiti are on North Boundary Street (in the lower Shankill, west Belfast) and the Ballysillan Road (north Belfast).

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Fulton & Goatley

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“In loving memory of John Fulton [and] Stephen Goatley, died 15th March 1975. Will always be remembered by their family and friends. Quis separabit.” UDA members John Fulton and were Stephen Goatley were killed together in the Alexandra Bar on York Road (close to the Mervue Street location of this memorial) in revenge for the stabbing of the UVF’s Joe Shaw in the North Star Bar by the UVF as part of the UDA-UVF feud in 1975.

The two men named on the other board were also killed in a feud between the UDA and UVF, in 2000 – see Inky & Candy. “In loving memory Thomas (Inky) English & David (Candy) Greer Annesley. Together in the same old way/would be our dearest wish today./Silent memories true and tender/just to show we still remember.”

Mervue Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast. The small plaque was previously seen in 2017.

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The Typist With The Webley

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“The typist with the Webley: Winifred Carney – socialist, republican, freedom fighter, Irish Citizen Army, Cumann Na mBan, suffragist, trade unionist, revolutionary.”

Winifred Carney was a qualified secretary and typist, and became secretary of the Irish Textile Workers’ Union in 1912, in which position she met James Connolly, who was secretary of the Belfast branch of the ITGWU. She was a member of Cumann Na mBan and participated in the Easter Rising of 1916. Carney was in the GPO when it was taken over and was among those who surrendered at the end; during the occupation she typed up dispatches from the Moore Street headquarters – this is how she was portrayed in the the 1916 Centenary mural.

(DIB | Ulster Biography | A Century Of Women | BBC | WP)

Stencil from Lasaır Dhearg (web) in Glenveagh Drive, Lenadoon, west Belfast, replacing the simple graffiti Ní Saoırse Go Saoırse Na mBan.

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This Is Our Israel

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“This is our Israel and this we shall defend.” “This” is Northern Ireland.

This is a vintage sticker (dating back to 2021) on the Shankill Road at Lawnbrook Avenue.

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Inky & Candy

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“25 years from home. In proud and loving memory of Inky & Candy. Gone but not forgotten.”

October 2000 was a violent month in Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast, as the UDA and UVF feuded. David “Candy” Annesley (commonly known as David Greer – BelTel) was shot in Mountcollyer Street on October 28th by the UVF. On the 31st, Bertie Rice, veteran UVF member and canvasser for the PUP, was killed by the UDA at his Canning Street house. Later the same day, Tommy “Inky” English – UDA commander in north Belfast who had previously lived in Tiger’s Bay – was shot death by the UVF at his Ballyduff home. Mark Quail of the UVF was shot in Rathcoole on November 1st. (BBC | BBC | WP) There were fears that the feud would end (An Phoblacht) but it was formally ended on December 15th, with a joint statement by both groups (RTÉ).

This twenty-fifth anniversary tarp is on the multi-use pitch on North Queen Street at Upper Canning Street.

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Feriens Tego

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Stop The Boats has been painted out below the large “Loyalist Tiger’s Bay” and the entire wall painted in solid blue and book-ended by UDA and UFF boards showing silhouetted gunmen in active poses.

The side-wall, home to painted Orange Order symbols since 2017, has been painted black and a board (above) added to E company from Tiger’s Bay. (It’s possible “North Belfast brigade” and “3rd battalion” are the same thing.)

For the KCIII board above, see I Here Present Unto You Your Undoubted King.

Limestone Road and North Queen Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast

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Booked

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Here are a pair of ‘booked’ notices for competing loyalist groups – UDA and UVF – on adjacent walls in Queen’s Parade, Glengormley. Above, “Booked UDA” where the panels of The Longest Reign have come down; this wall is next to South East Antrim Remembers – see the wide shot below. And in the last two images, “Booked UVF”, which has been in place since 2015, and is next to How Nobly They Fight And Die.

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Free Marwan

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“Free Marwan and all Palestinian political prisoners”. Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the group Fatah, has been in Israeli prison since 2002. He was seen last month in a video showing Israeli’s national security minister taunting the 66-year-old Barghouti in his cell (BBC | Al Jazeera | NPR).

Barghouti and 1,000 other prisoners went on hunger-strike in 2017 in order to win family visits for prisoners; see “Free Marwan Barghouti” in Belfast and in Derry and Barghouti’s quote “Our Chains Will Be Broken Before We Are” in a north Belfast stencil.

The photograph reproduced in this mural, of Barghouti giving the “V” for victory symbol while in handcuffs, can be seen at New Arab.

Divis Street, west Belfast, on the International Wall, where Barghouti’s son Aarab spoke at the launch (youtube).

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