The ‘hooded gunman’ is alive and well, as evidenced by this “1st East Antrim – D. Company Ulster Volunteer Force” mural in Larne.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03762 X03761 wellington green
Armed And Ready
physical force
Composition With Electrical Cable And Shadow Of Power Line
Two images of pleasing shapes formed by cabling, street signs, and the shadow of power lines on plastered walls.
Previously in accidentally-geometric-walls, the Mondrian-esque Composition With Orange, Bathroom Tile And Dolphin Wallpaper.
Boyne Square is a loyalist area of Larne. It hosts a bonfire and Orange Order arch in the marching season.
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Administrative Detention
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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X03743 X03742 Divis St
The World Did Gaze In Deep Amaze
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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X03802 X03689 X03688 X03803 Divis St
Ógra Shınn Féın
A vintage Ógra Shınn Féın stencil still visible in north Belfast. On the removal of the petrol bomb from the modern Sınn Féın Youth logo, see Slugger O’Toole.
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X03798 Kerrera Street
But Never The Revolution
Derry INLA man Neil McMonagle – who died in February 1983 – is placed among the seven signatories of the proclamation of the provisional government of the Irish Republic.
For more information about his life, see previously McMonagle.
The board was launched on January 31st, 2016, just before the anniversary of McMonagle’s death (Derry Now).
Leafair Park, Shantallow, Derry
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03781 killed in action 2nd february 1983
Willowbank Huts
The old military huts at Willow Bank (or: Willowbank; the modern-day La Salle/Iveagh area on the Falls) – which were still in use in 1896 – provided a training ground for Cumann Na mBan and the Irish Volunteers in the run-up to the Easter Rising.
The small figures between the huts and the trainees in the foreground are Charlie Monahan (born in Ballymacarrett, raised in the Markets, who died in a car accident on the way to meet Casement’s arms on board the Aud (findagrave | An Phoblacht)), Manus O’Boyle (BMH witness statement), Jack White (who fought for Britain in the second Boer War and was later captain in the Irish Citizen Army (WP)), and Volunteer Sean O’Neill.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Drink A Loving Toast
“Remember those not here today, And those unwell or far away, And those who never lived to see the end of the War & Victory, And every friend who’ve lost [or: passed] our way, Remember as of yesterday, It’s absent friends we miss the most, To ALL, Let’s drink a loving toast.”
William Walker’s poem Absent Friends is used as a part of UDA/UFF commemoration of various Larne men: “Ewan ‘Shug’ McPherson, Raymond ‘Toby’ Sloan, Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Nicholl (who is featured in a separate board, above; BBC-NI report of his killing), Ian ‘Big Ian’ Hamilton. Walker was a pilot during WWII who wrote poetry and returned to the brewing trade after the war; he died at age 99 in 2012 (Guardian).
Union flags with “Ulster Is British” have been added to the board seen previously in Her Majesty’s Forces In Afghanistan.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03766 X03767 X03774 X03768 Linn Road gone but not forgotten
March Against Internment
The old Nissen huts of Long Kesh are rendered in cartoon style of this ‘march against internment’ poster, which has been plastered over a commercial hoarding on Northumberland Street.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Craigyhill Provost Team
There was some consternation (Larne Times) when the UDA/UFF board (shown above) with a silhouetted paramilitary holding a pistol was set up in late 2014, but the board remains in place in the summer of 2016. “South East Antrim 3rd Batt., D Coy.” If you know what “provost team” means, please let us know.
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X03765 Linn Road
Extramural Activity 