physical force – Page 8 – Extramural Activity

“Peace” Building

2023-03-312025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The gates on Lanark Way are part of the west Belfast “peace” wall. On this site we always put the word in scare-quotes to signify that it has a different meaning than it typically does. Without them, “peace wall” might suggest a place where people can go for a few moments of quiet reflection.

Rather, the wall – and the gates and the cages that surround many buildings on either side of the wall (see above) – is a divider meant to keep the peace by separating warring factions. Indeed the reason for the re-painting of the gates is not just the up-coming 25th anniversary of the Belfast or “Good Friday” Agreement (on April 10th) but the fact that they were damaged in the 2021 rioting (BBC). (This Irish News article surveys 150 years of violence at the site.)

The new art on the gates is inspired by the cover of the booklet sent to every household in advance of the May vote to ratify the Agreement (available at CAIN), which was similar in various ways to the television ad shown at the time (Ads On The Frontline). It showed a family of four in silhouette against a red-and-orange sunset; given the rioting associated with Lanark Way, on the gates this sunset could be mistaken for flames, and the rejoicing silhouetted figures for gesticulating and petrol-bomb-throwing rioters. For the previous art on the gates, see the Visual History page on the west Belfast “peace” line. (For the mural in the background, see Sailortown Dockers.)

For all your “peace” line needs, see the Belfast Interface Project.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12166 X12167 X12178 X12184 [X12177]

Derry Remembers

2023-03-272025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Why did you do it? Have you not the guts to say?” The question is for David Holden, who in 1988 was an 18-year-old Grenadier Guardsman, manning a checkpoint in Aughnacloy, Co. Tyrone. On February 21st, Holden shot Aidan McAnespie as he was walking to the nearby GAA club. Holden was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence (BBC | Belfast Live) and was sentenced in February to three years, suspended for three years. The family expressed disappointment, saying that Holden did give a clear account of what happened nor express remorse (Sky News | Journal). Holden has now decided to appeal his conviction (BBC | RTÉ).

See previously: Operation Banner.

The lark in barbed wire is used here not as a symbol of political prisoners but of the struggle for justice in the UK system. (See the Visual History page on the lark and the dove.)

Also visible is the recently-added Braille translation of “You are now entering Free Derry”.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
X12142 X12139 X12140 X12141

Operation Pagoda

2023-03-142025-01-07Extramural Activity1 Comment

“CR Gas & The Burning Of Long Kesh, 15th-16th October, 1974 in Long Kesh. Operation Pagoda – the British government authorised and sanctioned the use of a chemical weapon against Irish Republican prisoners. Members of the 22nd S.A.S. carried out the attack from a helicopter.”

Operation Pagoda was the name of the SAS’s counter-terrorism programme (WP). Its role in the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’ in October 1974 and its alleged use of CR (dibenzoxazepine) powder – the successor to CS powder (and before that, CN or “tear” gas) (New Scientist) – remains a classified matter. CR had been authorised for use in 1973 (Guardian).

The original photograph of the central scene (IWM HU 7025, included in this article from An Phoblacht) was in black-and-white and was reproduced as such in the three previous versions of this mural 2021 Chemical Warfare In Ireland, 2018 The Battle Of Long Kesh, 2014 The Maze Ablaze. This new version adds burning reds and oranges. It replaces the No Profit O n Pandemic mural.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12126 [X12127] [X12128] X12071 X12072 [X12082] X12083 [T02283] X12182 [X12183]

We Will Always Be Ready

2023-02-212025-01-07Extramural Activity3 Comments

There are three hooded gunmen on the main panel of this new installation along Conway Street, Belfast, and the side panel is a gallery of 14 photographs of hooded gunmen, flanked on either by two more hooded gunmen.

Please note: the photograph above has been photoshopped for colour. The true colour (orange) can be seen in the wide shot, below.

“No. 5 Platoon, attached to ‘A’ Company, 1st Belfast Battalion, Ulster Volunteer Force, was formed at the onset of the conflict, and was eventually to become one of the most active Units with the Organisation. The Platoon was formed to fulfil one role, the defence of the Protestant community on the Shankill Road, in the wake of increasing, indiscriminate, Republican gun and bomb attacks. To counter these sectarian, murderous incursions, No. 5 Platoon devised a daring strategy, which would see its Volunteers strike at the very heart of the Republican war machine. Such steely determination and gallantry in the face of a deadly enemy, would make the Platoon one of the most deadly military Units within the 1st Belfast Battalion. Throughout the course of the conflict, alongside other UVF Active Service Units, using any and all means at their disposal, No. 5 Platoon Volunteers inflicted massive casualties to those who would seek our demise, and in so doing, brought the Irish Republican Movement to its knees. Today the message remains unchanged. As long as one of us remains, this community will not be shot, bombed, intimidated or coerced, into a United Ireland. Ulster will remain British! Those No. 5 Platoon Volunteers who were imprisoned during the conflict, and those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the Cause they served, will never be forgotten. They will now and forevermore, be honoured by those of us who remain. For God and Ulster.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12028 X12026 X12025 X12027

Seymour Hill UDA

2023-02-152025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Queen Elizabeth II 70th/platinum Jubilee banners remain on either side of the UDA board above the Seymour Hill shops, even after her death in September (previously there were two NI Centenary banners). There are orange lilies at the four corners of the UDA emblem.

Across the street is a memorial stone to those who died in The Great War And The Recent Conflict.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11894 X11893 [X11899]

Lives Lost

2023-02-112025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In addition to the repainted mural in Donore Court (featured yesterday in Time For The Truth) a number of information boards have been mounted along the New Lodge Road and on Teach Eithne, presenting photographs and profiles of the six youths who were killed, and a map and description of the events that took place on the night of February 3rd-4th, 1973.

The board concludes, “It is equally true that many others from the neighbouring Unionist and Protestant communities lost their lives during the conflict – these tragedies too bring a painful sense of loss that must be acknowledged. With over 100 lives lost by a combination of loyalist and British State forces – the Greater New Lodge community experience speaks to a story of State execution, collusion and naked sectarian killings over a 35 year period. … The New Lodge community has a narrative that remains to be told – this includes lives lost, imprisonment and discrimination. It is extremely difficult to accurately convey the enormity of the devastation and pain of lives lost in the conflict. … The New Lodge conflict narrative is not of passive victimhood, but of a community who survived the most difficult circumstances and who remain steadfast in their determination to pursue truth and justice for their loved ones.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X11990 X11988 X12003
X11984 X11985 X11986 X11987
X11989 X11997 [X11996] X11998 X11999
Charlie Carson James McCann James Sloan Ambrose Hardy Tony TC Campbell Brendan ‘Fat’ Maguire John Loughran

Time For The Truth

2023-02-102025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A candle-lit vigil (youtube | iTV) took place last Friday (February 3rd) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the “New Lodge Six Massacre”. Shortly before midnight on the night of February 3rd-4th, 1973, Jim Sloan and James McCann were killed by the UDA outside a bar – or so the authorities alleged; the plaque shown below near the spot where they were shot reads “killed by British Forces”; full details of what is currently known about the killings can be found at Paper Trail.

Four more – Tony ‘TC’ Campbell, Ambrose Hardy, Brendan Maguire, John Loughran – were among those who came to the area of the initial shootings and were killed by British Army snipers from their positions on top of the flats, using night-vision sights.

The memorial mural in Donore Court was repainted for the event. From left to right, it shows Hardy, Maguire, Campbell, Loughran, Sloan, and McCann walking down New Lodge Road with (what was) Duncairn Presbyterian and (what was) the RUC station on the Antrim Road behind them. The previous (2011) version of the mural showed a body being carried whereas this new one shows them smiling as they walk, though still in the sights of a sniper’s rifle. Other changes were made: the six portraits in the medallions are now photographs rather than paintings; the background is green rather than pink.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X12001 [X12000] [X12002]
X11995
X11982 [X11981]

From The Top Down

2023-02-062025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In a 2020 reflection on the tenth anniversary of the Saville report, Eamonn McCann wrote: “Saville pointed the finger of blame at 10 rank and file soldiers and one allegedly undisciplined officer. The top brass and the politicians were, without exception, given a clean bill of health.” (Hot Press)

On the side wall to the new Bloody Sunday mural in Derry, the chain of command is found guilty war crimes in Northern Ireland on January 30th, 1972 – Bloody Sunday: “Guilty; Heath, Wilford, Ford, Kitson, Loden”. From the top down, the five people mentioned are:

Ted Heath, UK Prime Minister, 1970-1974

Frank Kitson, “counterinsurgency theorist” and commander of troops in Belfast 1970-1972 (History Ireland)

Robert Ford, commander of land forces 1971-1973, who wanted to block the march and make arrests in Creggan, and who wrote a January 7th memo suggesting that gaining control of Derry would require the shooting of “young hooligans” in Derry (The Irish Story).

Derek Wilford, commander of the 1st Parachute regiment on Bloody Sunday, who gave the order for soldiers to make arrests

Ted Loden, commander of ‘Support Company’, the soldiers that went into the Bogside.

The main panel shows General Sir Michael Jackson, second-in-command on Bloody Sunday and who acted as spokesperson for the event and provided the inaccurate account of the killings that was used by the media and the Widgery Report of April 1972 (see An Phoblacht and previously Jail Jackson for his connection to the Ballymurphy Massacre).

Update: By February 14th, the mural had been painted out – see final image, below.

Fáılte Roımh Chách

2023-01-132025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

We have featured this ‘bookmark’-dimensioned mural on the so-called “International Wall” before (in 2018) but today include an image (the third one, below) of the replica cell inside the museum itself; a sharper image (and the source for the painting) can be seen on the home page of the Museum’s web site.