graffiti/writing

Derry Remembers

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“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”.

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Copyright © 2023 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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Seymour Hill In The Wars

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The Seymour Hill WWII mural will be 14 years old this coming July (2023) but it is hanging on fairly well. It is quite faded – especially the parachutes at the top – but there is no graffiti on the wall itself, only on the wall below it. For the mural when new and information about the US camp and portrait of Colditz prisoner William Harbinson, see M04776.

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Season’s Greetings From Belfast

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“Merry Christmas, yis cunts yis” – happy holidays from Belfast city centre. Stan Carey from the blog Strong Language suggests the name “pronominal split reduplication” for the repeated “yis”.

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Where’s Our 600 Quid?

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After much delay and finger-pointing (BelTel | Belfast Live) – and this complaint from east Belfast graffitist Hallion – details were published yesterday (December 30th) about how people will receive a £600 pound direct debit (or a voucher redeemable at the Post Office) to help with energy bills (uk.gov). The £600 comprises £400 from the Energy Bills Support Scheme (approved back in April, 2022 – uk.gov) and a £200 “Alternative Fuel Payment” (announced in August – uk.gov). The £200 AFP is due to the high percentage of homes using home-heating oil in Northern Ireland as compared with Britain (Belfast Live).

“Where is our 400 600 quid? Cost of living, innit. – Hallion2″

Previous work by Hallion: Wash Your Hands | It Hasn’t Gone Away | Wear A Mask Or The Easter Bunny Gets It | к черту Путина/Thran Rights Nai. For the fake shop-fronts, see previously: Semiotics.

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It’s Christmas After All

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“Merry Christmas from the loyalist Village – fuck the protocol – FGAU”.

More recent anti-Protocol graffiti – see Peace Or Protocol – and posters – A Return To Violence (for most background) and Political Leaders Are Not Listening.

Glenmachan Street, Belfast, just below Frenchpark Street.

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Political Leaders Are Not Listening

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Here is a second set of images showing the “peace or protocol” poster that has appeared in PUL areas in the city, three in east Belfast – along the Newtownards Road. Two others in north Belfast were seen previously in A Return To Violence, which also explains the poster.

For the murals along “Freedom Corner” see 50th Anniversary; for the black-and-white mural, see Please Pay Here. See also Choose One Or The Other.

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No Room At The Inn

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“PSNIRA Out” graffiti below the Holiday Inn in Sandy Row, Belfast.

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Peace Or Protocol

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Agriculture minister Edwin Poots’s directive to stop checks on goods coming from Britain to Northern Ireland – which did not come into practical effect – was struck down on Friday, and reverting the policy to what it was under the NI Protocol and Brexit deals. The High Court judge who handed down the decision did so on the grounds that Poots’s directive was politically motivated (BBC) – in other words, it was taken as part of the DUP’s opposition to the Protocol, which next (in February, 2022) involved collapsing the executive.

Sales from GB to NI increased 7% (about 1 billion pounds in value) in the year after the Protocol came into effect (BBC | BelTel) but money isn’t everything (the “erosion of our identity” is “non-negotiable“) and protests persist, offering the bargain of “the peace” (i.e. the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement) or “the proticol”. Efforts continue by the UK government to reach a new deal with the EU and/or to pass a bill allowing unilateral changes (News Letter).

Glenmore St and Gawn St, Belfast.

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Death To Informants

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Republican graffiti in Fahan Street, Derry, adjacent to the Che Guevara Lynch mural. Any specific reference is unknown; in 2019 there was controversy over signs threatening informers in relation to the killing of Lyra McKee (e.g. extra).

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The Rising Place

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The buildings on North Street above the art deco Bank Of Ireland building – including a former home (called The Loft) of the artists’ collective now known as The Vault– were razed in 2017. Since then, the hoarding around the site has been a site for street art and graffiti art, most recently a series of Clash Street Kids pieces (inspired by the ‘Bash Street Kids’) by the TMN krew. The plan for the location is now to produce (for 100 million pounds) a building housing a multi-media presentation of the results of an “unparalleled programme of story collection” (Belfast City Council) that will be attractive to an anticipated 1.8 million annual visitors (Architects’ Journal).

For the street art in the background, see Belfast Deco.

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