“UDA Out – ONH”. Óglaıgh na hÉıreann called a ceasefire in January, 2018 (BBC-NI) and largely disappeared from public consciousness. This recent graffiti, which is perhaps related to drug dealing (BelTel | BLive | BBC-NI | see previously Little Monsters), is at the top of Broadway.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06877
Bathed in sunshine: UVF graffiti on the purple wall opposite the Passchendaele mural in Conway Walk.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06899
“Dublin hands off Ulster – EU/PIRA”. For this Agnes Street graffitist, the EU’s refusal to accept a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic make it bedfellows with the IRA.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06876
“700+ MI5 agents in Ireland.” Lasaır Dhearg (tw | web) and Red Section (Fb) stencils in Beechmount Avenue protesting the continued presence of British security forces on the island of Ireland. The 700 number comes from reports of additional MI5 agents in the wake of a New IRA car bomb in January (IntelNews | Times | Irish Central).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06875 brits out britain out of ireland
“This world isn’t worth your soul”. Religious graffiti on Cupar Way, based on Mark 8:36.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06832 [X07234]
The third (and surely not the final?) season of the popular UK drama Brexit is keeping people guessing. This week, it looks like Boris might betray the ever-loyal Arlene and agree a Northern Ireland-only backstop with EU before time runs out on October 31st. In Belfast, lower Shankill residents are not amused by this potential turn of events and have invoked the classic “No surrender!” catch-phrase from 1688’s Siege Of Derry, painted on the wall between the security gates dividing Catholic and Protestant west Belfast. (Just kidding, of course; this is serious stuff. But the twists and turns are worthy of a telenovela. As Belfasters have always said, “If you’re not confused, you don’t know what’s going on.”)
Other recent messages below the Imagine mural: Victory To Isreal | Your Wall, Your Border
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06810
New graffiti art – artist unknown – at the bottom of loyalist Conway Street, next to the Cupar Way “peace” line.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06793 X06794 [X06794] conway st
The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 but dividing walls all over the world still stand. Kai Wiedenhöfer’s Wall On Wall exhibition comes to Belfast later in the month (the launch is September 27th at 4 pm), placing images of dividing walls on Belfast’s own dividing wall, the Cupar Way “peace” line. Shown above is the image of the wall in Al Bayya (Baiyya) in the Al Rashid district, part of the 700 km of walls in Baghdad, Iraq (Browse Gallery), which was pasted onto the “peace” line as a trial for the forthcoming exhibition. As usual, it has been vandalised by tourists and their patronising slogans (and political statements: “Hong Kong is doesn’t have to be a part of China!”). Wiedenhöfer’s image of the Occupied Territories was on Free Derry Corner in 2013 (see Ramallah, Israeli City Of Culture) and three images of Belfast were pasted onto the Berlin Wall in 2013 (Irish Times).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
[X06788] X06792 X06790 X06789 X06791
AAD [Action Against Drugs] circulated lists of alleged drug dealers in north and west Belfast in July (Belfast Live), and in August members brandishing a gun and a club posed beside graffiti in the New Lodge urging residents to ‘take back their community’ (BelTel); there have also been attacks on the houses of alleged anti-social elements (BelTel). However, in much of the graffiti, such as the piece above threatening “drug dealers, hoods, and house breakers”, “AAD” has been scored out, indicating community dissatisfaction with the vigilantes.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06769 X06771
Extramural Activity 