physical force

A Letter To The 22

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“I gcuımhne na nÓglach a fuaır bás ar son saoırse [in memory of the volunteers who died for freedom].” The “22” are the familiar 12 deceased Troubles-era hunger-strikers, plus 10 from 1917 to 1946: Thomas Ashe, Terence McSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Joe Witty, Dennis Barry, Andy O’Sullivan, Tony Darcy, Jack McNeela, Sean McCaughey.

“‘A Letter To The 22: You have not gone away. You are in the hearts/and on the lips of your people./The old speak of you with knowing tongue. The middle/aged, as those who walked beside you./The young men and women with a passion not unlike your own./Your names can be heard on the wind taken from the mouths/of men who tend their flocks on Slieve Gullion, Cnoc Phádraıg, Glenshane./They echo in small graveyards in/Cork, Kerry, Galway, Mayo, Tyrone, Antrim, Derry and Armagh./They are heard among your people at the mass gate on/Sunday, in the crowd at the hurling game, around the hearth when/the bottle is cracked and song in sung. Your image can be seen/on the faces of happy smiling children for whose freedom you gave your all./You are in our prayers, you have not gone away, you never will’ – Colum Mac Gıolla Bhéın“

For the same 22, see Staılc Ocraıs. Replaces a painted mural to Joe McDonnell.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11560 X11561 Suffolk Rd

Waiting For The Wall

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Here are in-progress shots of “Freedom Corner” from mid June (images 1, 2), early July (images 4, 5) and early August (image 6), plus the info board that was posted to give people an idea of how the gables would look when complete (using the Tommy Herron mural in Bangor).

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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50th Anniversary

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Three months after it was initially whitewashed (mid June, 2022), the repaint of so-called “Freedom Corner” is now complete, with a new mural on each of the 11 panels that make it up. This entry is a gallery of fifteen images from the new wall. The main gables reproduce photographs of the UDA (and more specifically the East Belfast brigade) during the 1970s. The side walls celebrate the formation of the UDA/LPA/UFF/UYM in 1971-1974 and the role of women in supporting prisoners.

By Blaze FX (Fb | ig) on the Newtownards Road. Here is a small gallery of in-progress images: Waiting For The Wall. The ‘five flags’ also appear in An Act Of Betrayal.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
1-2 X11567 [X11568] [X11569] [X11570] X11571 [X11572] [X11573] X11574
3 X11575 [X11576]
4-5 X11577 [X11578] X11579 [X11580] [X11581] X11314
6 [X11582] X11315
7 [X11583] X11316 X11584 [X11585]
wide right X11586 [X11592]
10-11 X11587 [X11588] [X11589] X11590 [X11591]
wide X11565 X11566
[X11407] [X11408] [X11409] [X11410]

Larne Sports

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Toals bookmakers are offering odds and taking bets on racing, soccer, and … shooting? The PSNI are in the crosshairs. In the background are the Black Arch on the Coast Road and Chaine Memorial tower.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X10591 X10590 X10592

You Are Now Entering Loyalist Kilcooley

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“East Belfast 6th battalion, North Down”, with UFF, UDA, and UYM insignia against a background of the Harland & Wolff cranes (in east Belfast) and Ulster tower (in Thiepval), at the upper entrance to Kilcooley estate, Bangor. An image of this tarp was included by Dee Stitt in a gallery illustrating “Protestant culture” (tw) which drew a correction from the Rev Bill Shaw, a director of Charter NI; Jamie Bryson responded on Stitt’s behalf (News Letter).

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11142 X11143

Neighbourhood Watch

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Here is a selection of UVF boards on the fronts of houses in Whitehill (Bangor). Two flute bands are mentioned: Pride Of Whitehill (Fb) and Bangor Protestant Boys (Fb). In the final image, the date of the formation of the Ulster Volunteers is given in Roman numerals: MCMXII.

For David Gordon Dalzell, see Pride Of Whitehill. For the relationship between the East Belfast and North Down battalions, see East East Belfast and Always A Little Further.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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X11160 X11161 X11162
X11163
X11164 [X11165] [X11166]
X11167
X11170 [X11171] [X11172]
[X11174] X11175 [X11176]
X11191

Long To Reign Over Us

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From before Queen Elizabeth’s death in September, a portrait in (fake) gilded frame below a Red Hand Commando board in Whitehill Drive, Bangor.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11173

Let Ambition Fire Thy Mind

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This new Shankill Road installation makes mention of “William and Mary”, Mary being co-monarch with her cousin William from 1689 to 1694, when she died of smallpox. She was raised Anglican, though her parents (including father James II, whom William defeated at the Boyne) had converted to Catholicism in the 1660s. Although the fifteen year-old Mary wept when the marriage was announced, she remained loyal to William and to “Church and State” when James was deposed (WP).

“King William III Prince of Orange 1650-1702. In God is my trust.” “This artwork celebrates the victory of William III over James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 “The battle of the two Kings”. The williamite ranks were filled with Irish protestants and international troops, William encouraged the hearts of his troops on the morning of the battle when he called to them “LET AMBITION FIRE THY MIND” on seeing the opposing army of James II, William exclaimed with delight “Ah I am glad to see you gentlemen; if you escape me now, the fault will be mine” they followed him to victory.”

In the background can be seen SMUG’s Mussen Cortège.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11485 X11486 X11484 (old) Beresford St

Our Cause Will Always Remain The Same

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“Through the years the uniforms may change, but our cause will always remain the same.” On the left (of the main panel) are the Ulster Volunteers drilling in 1914 (photograph at the Library of Congress) and a UVF show of strength on Newtownards Road (seen previously in East Belfast UVF On Parade).

On a wall along Abbot Drive (Newtownards) with purple and orange coping stones.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11274 X11273

The Pride Of Whitehill

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This UVF hooded gunman board (above the Pride Of Whitehill flute band (Fb) mural) was previously a memorial to the 36th (Ulster) Division (see They Sleep Side-By-Side) but has now become part of the East Belfast battalion’s markings in Bangor (see Always A Little Further).

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11181 X11182 X11180 Skipperstone Rd