The pikemen of 1798 go into battle under the flag of the United Irishmen in a detail from a new mural on the Falls Road for the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Below are work-in-progress images showing artists Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly and Bill Bradley.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03126 X03128 X03129 X03132 mcquillan st halberd
At the corner of the Falls Road and Northumberland Street, consumerism and republicanism collide.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The plaque above is a new one outside the Andersonstown Social Club, mounted for the centenary of the Easter Rising: 1916-2016 – We serve neither king nor kaiser but Ireland. This plaque was erected to the memory of the men and women who give their lives in the fight for Irish freedom. “Apostles of freedom are ever idolised when dead but crucified when alive” – James Connolly (These are the opening lives of ‘The Men We Honour‘ 1898)
The plaque below is a previously existing one to volunteers from the First Battalion of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade and various other republicans and “also in memory of the civilians who died at the hands of the UDR, RUC, and loyalist extremists”.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03280 X03279 south link an chéad chathlán de bhrıogáıd bhéal feırste óglaıgh na héıreann ı ndílchuımhne [ndılchuımhne] ar henderson mcdermott forsythe jordan finucan hall burke fennell rooney fox kane lennon o’callaghan mccartan sands mcdonnell doherty turley magill mckernan mcardle farrell mccracken macbrádaıgh twomey o’rawe mcdonagh ryan black roe mcairt dolan crawford mcauley dempsey best drumm keenan
More “peace” line images today (after yesterday’s repainting of the Cliftonville “peace” line in Blue Sky Thinking): at the end of February work began taking down a section of the 8 foot high wall on the Ardoyne side of the Crumlin Road, separating Ardoyne from the Woodvale area, though the section close to Woodvale and the wall on the Woodvale side remain for now.
The houses on the north side of the road will now be able to see the road and the doors of Holy Cross church (shown above).
The vintage piece of Free Brendan Lillis graffiti shown in the final image survives, just out of picture to the left in the wide shot below.
Here is some BBC-NI footage of the wall being knocked down. Here are Irish Times, NewsLetter and Tele articles on the 2013 NI Executive policy objective of removing the lines by 2023. And here’s an interview with Heather Bellamy, author of Towards A City Without Walls.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03302 X03305 X03306 X03319 this cross stands here to mark the unbroken presence of the passionists and the people at holy cross since 1869 and as a sign of hope
The Irish News last week reported the concerns of west Belfast parents whose children sometimes play under-10 football at Inverary Community Centre, in front of the UVF mural shown above, with the flags of Scotland and the United Kingdom in the background. East Belfast FC, which is based at Inverary, responded that the complaints are “contrived” and that all children are welcome at the ground.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03320 IFA Irish Football Association st andrew saltire union jack st george cross 1912
This is a new panel in the RNU (Fb)/Cogús (Fb) mural on Northumberland Street. If you can identify the image or the style, please get in touch. “End forced isolation, end controlled movement, end forced strip searches”.
For previous panels, see Free Stephen Kaczynski | The Popular Front | The Only Secure Community Is An Organised One
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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For the centenary of the Easter Rising – a plaque featuring James Connolly with the plough in the stars hovering over the GPO.
Queen’s Parade, Belfast
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition – items from which were shown in Belfast earlier in February (see Revolution 1916) – opened in Dublin this weekend, including two murals (see this An Phoblacht article for one of them). The three painters also painted the mural above for the mini-exhibition in Andersonstown, reproducing the left-hand grouping from Walter Paget’s Birth Of The Irish Republic and putting the proclamation in the background. For Paget’s original oil painting and other version of it, see the painting’s Visual History page.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03278 poblacht na heireann provisional government to the people of ireland
James “Jim” Doherty was six years old when he was shot while playing in the front garden of his Turf Lodge home in 1972. Relatives For Justice and the family launched the board shown above at the entrance to the estate last October in order to push for a new inquiry into the death due to the insufficiency of the original investigation and the disappearance of the bullet taken from the body. (Belfast Media Group)
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This new mural in Ballyduff commemorates the sacrifice of the Ulster Volunteers and Young Citizen Volunteers who fought in WWI and in particular their action in 1916; 2016 is the centenary of the Battle Of The Somme. The flag of (modern) UVF 1st East Antrim battalion flies on either side of the mural.
In the second image: the other new mural on this box was featured in If Needed, We Shall Rise Again
In the third image: The Ultimate Sacrifice
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03282 X03283 X03229 fairview ave lest we forget YCV they paid the ultimate sacrifice present peace now still our hand death no longer stalks the land our weapons are silent and shall remain but if needed we shall rise again hooded gunmen world war one
Extramural Activity 