“Nature sent the potato blight, government & landlords created the famine.” A woman kneeling between two gravestones inspects a rotten potato during the Great Hunger (Visual History).
Lenadoon Avenue, west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05918
The main Lenadoon mural is refreshed and more portraits and a plaque added (on the right). The dying Cú Chulainn (as portrayed in bronze by Oliver Sheppard, in a statue installed in the GPO in 1935) is used as a symbol for the locals from Lenadoon (including IRA volunteers) who fought for freedom (“saoırse”). They are listed on the scrolls to each side and in the portraits in the apex: Tony Henderson, John Finucane, Brendan O’Callaghan, Joe McDonnell, Laura Crawford, Maıréad Farrell, Patricia Black, Bridie Quinn (previously listed as Bridie O’Neill).
For the previous version (though without the three faces it initially had, of O’Callaghan, McDonnell, and Farrell) see M01934.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05917
Charlie Tully, born in the Pound Loney in 1924, played for Belfast Celtic (1944-1948) and Glasgow Celtic (1948-1959) (WP | CharlieTully.com). The mural is on the back of the Celtic Bar on the Falls Rd/Waterford St.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00356
“Ballymurphy unbowed, unbroken” with images of Ballymurphy including the mural of McCrudden-O’Rawe–Jordan and memorial garden on Divismore Way (left) and Springhill (right). The male figures in the foreground are unnamed but the four in jackets are presumably Stone, McWilliams, McCracken, and Dougal after their mural in Springhill Drive was blanked; the female activists on the left of Cú Chulaınn are Mary Austin, Kathleen Clarke, Annie McWilliams. “This mural was unveiled by Gerry Adams MP 2nd May 2010.”
“Ní thıg leat Éıre a chloígh, ní thıg leat fonn saoırse mhuıntır na hÉıreann a mhúc[h]adh.” [“You cannot subdue Ireland; you cannot extinguish the desire for the freedom of the Irish people.”]
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00348
These are panels 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 16, 17, and 19 (of 19) of the children’s mural in Hopewell Avenue. It shows kids at play across the century, from lamp-post swings and marbles to razor scooters and break-dancing. By Blaze FX.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00360 X00361 X00362 X00363 X00364 X00365 X00366 X00367 X00368 X00369
This 1997 mural is a collage of images from the previous 30 years, including banging binlids on the ground, Maıréad Farrell in Armagh prison, men on the blanket, the cages of Long Kesh, marches in support of the hunger strikers, and reproductions of various posters, against Margaret Thatcher, plastic bullets, internment, and censorship. There’s a quote from Bob Dylan in the middle, “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see – the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00359 X05070
There is a memorial “garden” and mural in Clós Ard An Lao, in Ardoyne, in remembrance of 38 local people (“from the greater Bone, Ballybone, Rosapenna area”) who died during the troubles.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00355 X05069
Michael Gaughan’s final message included the line “Let there be no bitterness on my behalf, but a determination to achieve the new Ireland for which I gladly die” which is loosely quoted in this hunger strikers Ardilea Close (in the Bone) mural. He is buried with Frank Stagg in Leigue Cemetery, Ballina (WP). The mural has been added behind the plaque to the hunger strikers in the middle-right: “Erected by the Olpark 1981 Committee. In proud and loving memories fo ten young Republicans who gave their lives during the 1981 hunger-strike in the H.Blocks of Long Kesh. No greater love than a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00354
“The Young Gun’s” – Ulster Young Militants fist between two columns of hearts in Fane Street, below Tates Avenue, south Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00380
Extramural Activity 