physical force

The Dead Cannot Cry Out For Justice

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Photographs of a dozen atrocities are included on the right of this Derwent Street mural, ranging in time from the 1970 gun-battle around the nearby St Matthew’s church in 1970, in which Jimmy McCurrie and Bobby Neill were killed, to the October 1993 IRA bombing of Frizzell’s fish shop on the Shankill Road, in which Leanne Murray (shown on the left) was one of ten people, two of them children, to die. The others incidents portrayed are Bloody Friday, Darkley, Coleraine, Abercorn, Balmoral, Claudy, La Mon, Kingsmill, and Teebane. 

This new computer-generated mural replaces the painted East Belfast Remembers, which had peeled away to a great extent.

“The slaughter of the innocent by the blood soaked hands of Sinn Fein/IRA never to be forgotten. The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. Is this the equality Sinn Fein/IRA asks for? No economic targets, no legitimate targets, no enquiries, no truth, no justice. Hold dear the memory of all the innocents murdered in our country in support of the Sinn Fein electorate. This memory extends to those not mentioned here who were murdered going about their daily lives at work, at prayer and in remembrance. Nothing was sacred in the futile question for a united Ireland.”

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Community Policing

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“The face of community policing?? Not in our name. Reject all forms of British political policing in Ireland.” The 32 County Sovereignty Movement lost its Facebook page this month, but its poster campaign against harassment and imprisonment of members continues.

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Her Old Tradition Of Nationhood

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“Saoradh salute the men and women of violence,” namely the signatories to the 1916 Proclamation, the women of the 1970s IRA, and modern “dissidents” with home-made weapons.

The plaque on the left is to the IRA’s Pearse Jordan, next to the centenary celebration of the Proclamation, Ag Fíorú Na Poblachta. The board was been moved to this Falls Road location from Ardoyne; it replaces an anti-RUC/PSNI mural.

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Fallen Comrades Of The INLA

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This is a new INLA board to deceased volunteers Danny Loughran and Matt McLarnon, Paul (“Bonanza”) McCann, Martin McElkerney, and Gino Gallagher. The new addition here is Martin McElkerney, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in March last year (2019) (Guardian). Shots were fired over McElkerney’s coffin (tw). He was released under the terms of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement after 12 years for his part in a booby-trap bombing of two British soldiers, one of whom died, in which two children also died.

For basic information on the deaths of the other four, see this IRSP page on the previous mural.

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Political Status

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Republican Sınn Féın and Provisional Sınn Féın were formed in 1986, when Sınn Féın split over the issue of taking Dáil seats. They reject the Belfast Agreement and support the use of force; the poster above calls for political status for prisoners, the same issue that led to the blanket protest and hunger strikes. (Their web site is in fact republicansinnfein.org; they are also on Twitter.)

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Same Aim

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Lasaır Dhearg (Fb | tw | web) next week (Thursday 30th) will have three speakers on the theme of Political Policing & Oppressive Legislation, starting at 7 in Conway Mill. The sticker above (with Red Section) is on Divis Street, west Belfast. “RUC – PSNI: Different name, same aim”.

Below are two more stickers, the first quoting Patrick Pearse: “Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam”, the second with a call to “End imperialism in Ireland”. The final sticker is from Lasair Dhearg only (not Red Section): Britain Out Of Ireland with Prince Charles in his paratrooper beret.

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Eddie Supports The Flag

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“Happy Christmas, Belfast.” A time of mythical creatures and twelve days of gifts. On the seventh anniversary of the flag protests (in response to a vote by the Council to fly the Union Flag from city hall only 18 days a year as in the rest of the UK) my true love gave to me a dozen or so Union Flags (and a few Ulster Banners) attached to the railings. Santa was nowhere to be seen but, as is fitting for a zombie, Eddie The Trooper continued to stalk the land. For Eddie’s previous appearances, see his Visual History page.

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Our Soldiers Are Heroes

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“Ballyclare supports Soldier ‘F’. Our soldiers are heroes, not criminals.” “Soldier F” is the pseudonym of a British Army paratrooper who faces charges of murdering two civilians, William McKinney and Jim Wray, in Derry on Bloody Sunday (January 30th, 1972), as well as five counts of attempted murder. Proceedings began in September (BelTel), a witness list was presented in December (BBC-NI), and the case will resume on January 17th.

Main Street, Ballyclare.

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UDA Remembers

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“[South East Antrim] UDA remembers. ‘They shall not grow old/As we that are left grow old/Age shall not wary them/Nor the years condemn/At the going down of the sun/And in the morning/We will remember them’ [The Fallen]” For the large mural, see The Men From Ballyclare & District.

Charles Drive, Ballyclare.

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All Ulster’s Soldiers

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“We support all Ulster’s soldiers.” The UDA and the UDR brought under the same umbrella of “Ulster’s defenders” in Charles Drive, Ballyclare. The UDR was established in 1970 to relieve the RUC and B Specials of military operations and was disbanded in 1992, in part because it was only 3% Catholic and 5-15% of members had links to loyalist paramilitaries (Irish News). 

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