Talk To The Hand

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The work above by TLO (featured previously in Demonizing Paisley, Three Studies Of Ian Paisley, Ian Jong-un, and Wee Angel) comments on the long-running inquiry (or inquiries) into abuse at the Kincora boys home. Despite the conviction of several workers as a result of a 1980 RUC inquiry, the matter continues to resurface, with involvement alleged against British lords and notables, MI5, and loyalist paramilitaries. In the latest development, an appeal by campaigners to have Kincora included in the UK-wide sexual abuse inquiry was rejected (BBC-NI). In the poster above, a bloody red hand takes the place of the head above Mountbatten’s regimental uniform.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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We Can Step In Anywhere And Turn Back The Clock

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Students from Coláıste Feırste took part in a Forbaırt Feırste (Fb) “pop-up art” project, designing plastic wrap for the installation of blocks at the old entrance to Beechmount leisure centre (see the wide shot immediately below). Taking its lead from a Ciarán Carson poem, the design features “a million wind-blown buttercups”, as well as the front page of Edward O’Reilly’s English-Irish dictionary (image #4, below). The piece was officially opened by Caral Ní Chuılín during Féıle An Phobaıl. Press release from NI ExecutiveSponsored by the Arts Council and Feırste Thıar.

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X02710 X02712 X02709 X02711 X02707 an irish-english dictionary with copious quotations from the most esteemed ancient and modern writers to elucidate the meaning of obscure words and numerous comparisons of irish words with those of similar orthography sense or sound in the welsh and hebrew languages tá am gan teoraınn bogann sé sıar mar scáth ar an léarscaıl seo ach tríd an chuımhne tıg lınn bheıth ın áıt ar bıth san am atá caıte. tá mé ı bpıctıúrlann chluaın ard arís ag amharc ar the wizard of oz den chéad uaır arís eıle tá an gort os comhaır teach ard na bhfeá lán de na mıllıúın fearán séıdte cıarán carson time is a moving boundary drifting like cloud shadow westwards on this map but through memory we can step in anywhere and turn back the clock i’m in the clonard picture house again seeing the wizard of oz for the first time once more the field in front of beechmount house is trembling with a million wind-blown buttercups i ndíl [ndıl] cuımhne [chuımhne] [ar] ár gcomrádaí clive dutton ar aghaıgh onwards deirdre mackel deirdre robb arthur scott damien rea Robert Shipboy McAdam antiquorian and gaelic scholar 1808-1895 lived in a house on this site éıríonn teanga agus spreagann sí

Giving The City A Human Face

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June brings the Belfast Photo Festival (4th-30th), including the work of Mentalgassi, a German trio that wraps street poles and other urban objects with black-and-white images of humans. In Belfast, they have covered the three buoys in the park beside the Art College. For shots of the buoys being covered, see the group’s Fb page.

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Costume Party

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Union Street paste-ups, opposite the Sunflower, showing (in costume) a lobster with wine-glass, a hiker with a bed-roll, a cow (Moomin?) in admiral’s hat, and an old-west character scanning the horizon with a spyglass.

For another version of the child-with-rose, see Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

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Snug As A Gun

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Seamus Heaney took up the pen where his father and grandfather had worked with the spade. A copy of his poem Digging was, along with others, placed on the Alexandra Park “peace” line but has been torn off in favor of the preferred mode of expression of the next generation: the spray can.

For more Heaney as public art, see The Hunting Heart.

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Operation Banner

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Charles, Prince Of Wales, Duke Of Rothesay, Duke Of Cornwall, and heir to the British throne, concludes a four-day visit to Ireland north and south today with a tour of Corrymeela peace and reconciliation centre. He is also colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment (the Paras) which served in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007. Flyers have appeared protesting the visit (see the two images below), and The Rebels Rest on the Falls road is flying the banner shown above: “Fund communities, not royal visits – éırígí.org”. Éırígí also produced a video in memory of some of those killed by the Regiment during its time in Northern Ireland.

The Sınn Féın board to the left is from their campaign to extend voting in the Irish Presidential election to the north: “Vótaí do gach saoránach Éireannach”, “Paul Maskey supports #pres4all – Uachtarán do chách/President for all”

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Wee Angel

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Who could resist this beaming smile and lilac knitwear? Communion portrait as street art, taking the place of Ian Jong-Un in Hill Street and (below) beneath the Potthouse plaque in Commercial Court.

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Foreign Arrivals

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Chinese, Cantonese, European, and Presbyterian. Three signs outside the Chinese take-away in Ballycarry: the Chinese lettering for the restaurant, a DUP poster supporting Sammy Wilson, and an Ulster-Scots heritage banner: “1613 The Arrival of Edward Brice – The first presbyterian minister in Ireland”.

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Through The Looking Glass

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Lewis Carroll’s Tweedledee and Tweedledum (as imagined by Tim Burton for Disney) have been turned into Twaddelldee and Twaddelldum, Twaddelldee using an Orange collarette as braces and Twaddelldum with face-mask, concealed brick, and “KAT” tattoo. The protest at Twaddell Avenue continues, after more than 600 days. For background, see previously: Protest Camp | Civil Rights CampSupporters Club | No Surrender

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No British Withdrawal?

2014-09-22 NoRoyalVisitsBeechmAv+

“No British withdrawal? No royal visits!”. Republican flyers from Éırígí on Beechmount Avenue.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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