physical force

Howth Gun-Running

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03734 2016-08-09 IntWall2016 Howth Gunrunning+

Nora Connolly in her Cumann Na mBan uniform is the centre point of the ‘Howth Gun-Running’ panel in the new mural on the International Wall. Her sister, Ina, is shown to the right, unloading a rifle from a car outside their home in Glenalina Terrace. About 1,500 rifles were smuggled into Ireland on two boats, 900 of them on the yacht, Asgard, shown left-of-centre with Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice aboard (the latter kept a diary of the trip; extracts are included in this RTÉ History Show video). Asgard docked at Howth on July 26th, 1914. (Here is a tcd.ie collection of images of Asgard’s journey; image #53 is the one reproduced in the mural). The other rifles eventually came ashore two weeks later at Kilcoole. (See this RTÉ article for an account of their tortured journey.)

The vintage Mauser rifles were received by members of Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann and Na Fıanna Éıreann (top left of the image above; here is the original photograph). The off-loading took place during the day but when the police and army met the marching volunteers at Clontarf they were able to capture only 19 rifles. As the army regiment involved returned to barracks it was pelted with stones or fruit by a crowd and killed three (with a fourth dying a week later), as recorded on the front page of the Irish Independent in the bottom left.

Below are two in-progress shots, and below those, two shots including the artist, Marty Lyons.

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This Divided Ulster Community

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03522 2016-06-13 McMichael Memorial Garden portrait+

The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1987. In addition to organising a team of assassins in the 70s and 80s, he founded a Political Research Group and wrote two documents proposing an independent Northern Ireland. The memorial garden, shown in full in the image below, is just off Sandy Row, near the John McMichael Centre. The other pieces can be seen in close-up in ‘A’ Batt. See also: We Must Share The Responsibility

“There is no section of this divided Ulster community which is totally innocent or indeed totally guilty, totally right or totally wrong. We all share the responsibility for creating the situation, either by deed or by acquiescence. Therefore, we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and then share the responsibility of maintaining good government.” (John McMichael 1948-1987)

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Shared Space

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03706 2016-08-03 IntWall2016 Public Meeting+

In addition to the defacing of Carson (see We Won’t Have Carson), a 32 County Sovereignty Movement mural remains about a quarter of the way along the newly repainted International Wall on Divis Street. (And as will be covered in a separate post, an IRPWA POW mural was in progress at the far right end of the wall.)

We understand that the painters offered to repaint the 32CSM mural after the historical mural had been in place for six months, but that this offer was turned down. For the purposes of the launch, then, a cloth sign, was hung over the 32CSM mural (as seen in the image above). It reproduces a poster (see the original) advertising “a public meeting for the formation of Irish Volunteers”; Eoin MacNeill, author in November 1913 of ‘The North Began’, presided at the meeting – here is the text of The North Began – and the newspaper carried by the hawker on the left reads “MacNeill successful in call for Irish Volunteers” (whereas it originally read “Rotunda rally – Irish volunteers now exceed 180,000” as can be seen in the Carson post). However, this cloth was removed immediately after the launch, meaning that the wall appears as in the image below.

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1st Batt – 3rd Batt

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This UVF hooded gunman expresses solidarity between the East Antrim 1st battalion and the (North Belfast?) 3rd battalion.

Drumahoe Gardens, Millbrook. The same hooded gunman is used in Armed And Ready in Larne.

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That The Dawning Years Might Make You Fearless

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03654 2016-07-08 Seamus Bradley l+

This memorial, which includes two stones, a glassed-in set of portraits of Derry Brigade members (second image), tricoloured railing and flag, commemorates the death of IRA volunteer Seamus Bradley. The stone on the right says that he was killed on active service, but the central headstone (third image) tells the story of an unarmed Bradley trying to distract the attention of British Army soldiers attacking people at the Creggan shops. To the right of the memorial is an extensive board of photographs and information relating to the treatment Bradley received, similar to the collection in front of the Operation Motorman mural in Rossville Street. (The oval plaque was on the wall of the Creggan Neighbourhood Centre – see M01604 – before it was demolished in 2013. (CAIN))

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On the 4th of July 1972 the British government met with army intelligence and army personnel, between them they created a blue print which was first called operation carcan to later be changed to operation motorman. In this secret meeting that place on the 4th of July, the army were to take 20,000 troops from the UN forces, and the government gave orders on a shoot to kill policy and confirmed that no soldier would be held accountable for their actions on that day. Over 1,500 of these soldiers and 300 centurion tanks were sent to free Derry to tear down the barricades and cause havoc, but the provisional IRA intercepted their blue print and decided to step down to protect the innocent people of Northern Ireland. It was 4:10am, there were 25 – 30 people at the Creggan shops when there was gunfire heard, Vol. Seamus Bradley unarmed drew attention to himself to save others. He ran down Bishop field where a soldier was to get out of a saracen, take aim in a kneeling position and fire two shots hitting him in the back, Vol. Seamus Bradley fell. Then the saracen drove down the field to where he lay, they put him in the saracen and took him away to St. Peter’s school, no one knew what happened after that. All they know is that he was interrogated, the pictures tell their own story. He was shot again three more times at close range, he was tortured and beaten and left to bleed to death at the hands of the British army. Afterwards it was confirmed by a doctor that none of Seamus Bradley’s injuries have been life threatening and had he received medical aid he would have lived.

This memorial is to commemorate Vol. Seamus Bradley just yards from where he fell. Vol. Seamus Bradley on the 2nd Battalion of B company Oglaıgh Na H-Éıreann, even though he was shot five times and beaten they could not make him betray his comrades. I lived and loved and laboured with a patriot’s heart and will that the dawning years might make you fearless and unfettered still. When a future age shall find thee free men stand by thy side Mother Ireland o” remember me. They may kill our bodies and take our blood but they will never break our spirits. killed on active service beırıgí bua

We Won’t Have Carson

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03491 2016-06-03 IntWall2016 Carson+

The history-of-republicanism mural now taking up the majority of the International Wall is not without controversy among republicans. One point of contention is the inclusion of Edward Carson’s portrait and the related scene of the Larne gun-running. Carson was leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance, campaigner against Home Rule, and founder of the Ulster Volunteers. 25,000 guns and more than 3 million rounds of ammunition were smuggled ashore at Larne, Donaghadee, and Bangor (see the second image for a sketch and the bottom two images for the completed scene). The formation of the UVF drew a counter-reaction in the formation of the Irish Volunteers, and membership was spurred on by the Larne gun-running. (See the third image.)

Carson’s image was originally paint-bombed in March (BMG | BelTel) and then again in April when “loose talk” posters were also added (Irish News). (For Loose Talk posters over the Otegi mural, see Loose-Talk Costs Lives.) For the launch on August 3rd, the posters were removed but the paint-bombing was not fixed. The image above is from June, 2016.

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Grid for the gun-running scene; image from March 2016. It is based on a drawing from the Illustrated London News, which can be seen in this RTÉ article on the gunrunning. About 600 cars were used in the operation, perhaps the first large-scale use of motorised vehicles.

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A newsboy carries a paper announcing the burgeoning Irish Volunteers. The headline portrayed was later changed, as can be seen in one of the images below.

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The first part of wall at the end of March, before the addition of the ‘loose talk’ posters over Carson’s face.

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The panel as it appears in August; the removal of the posters tore away some of the paint around Carson’s face.

A late August repaint makes Carson’s forehead protrude and the fingers of his hand are curled up. A Fáılte Feırste Thıar/Welcome To West Belfast panel has been added. (Presumably this welcome does not extend to the weapons being smuggled in as part of the gun-running.)

03819 2016-09-02 IntWall2016 Carson repaint+

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100 Loyal Men

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03681 2016-07-24 SE Antrim Ballyclare+

New South East Antrim UDA/UFF mural in Ballyclare, with the usual emblems and a central board featuring a photograph of a balaclava’ed volunteer: “For as long as 100 loyal men remain Ulster shall be free – Quis Separabit”.

03682 2016-07-24 SE Antrim Ballyclare Trio+

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Raising The Flag

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03694 2016-08-01 IntWall2016 1916+

For the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, the whole of the International Wall on Divis Street (or, almost the whole wall, as will be explained in a subsequent post) has been repainted to depict a history of Irish republicanism, with special attention given to connections to Belfast.

As might be expected, a panel of the new mural depicts the GPO of 1916. A Tricolour is thought to have been raised over the Henry Street corner of the GPO by Liverpudlian Joe Gleeson – he sports a Liver bird badge on his bandolier – though he does not mention this in his statement to the Bureau of Military History: “We started out from Kimmage about 60 strong at about ten o’clock that Easter Monday morning …”. (A flag of the Irish Republic was raised by Harry Walpole (Irish Times) or Eamon Bulfin (Collins 22 Society, which states that Gearóıd O’Sullivan raised the Tricolour; Bulfin’s statement to the BMH says Gleeson did so).) Gleeson was one of 50 fighters from the Liverpool Irish Volunteers. (Caırde Liverpool has the names of 38 volunteers from Merseyside; this BBC article contains photographic portraits of a number.) The image here is a modified version of the 1941 stamp designed by Victor Brown showing an armed volunteer outside the GPO (stampboards).

The Belfast connection in this panel is supplied by Winifred Carney, member of Cumann Na mBan, assistant to James Connolly from 1912 until the Rising, and part of the occupying forces in the GPO during the rising, “armed with a typewriter and a Webley” (according to her WP page). She is seen here (on the right, beneath the flag) typing up communications by candlelight in the GPO.

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Justice For Robert

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This small plaque is on Northumberland Way, on the ‘Dignity’ panel of the Amnesty mural and to the right of La Historia Es Nuestra. It is presumably a reference to the killing of Robert McCartney (WP) though by the time of this photograph, Jock Davison – whom the family believed had given the order for Robert’s stabbing – had already been shot dead (Bel Tel).

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End The Torture

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03614 2016-07-03 End The Torture+

IRPWA mural showing prisoners being beaten and lying in a pool of blood, next to the “#DerryHappy” mural in Lecky Road: “End the torture in Maghaberry now!!”

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