Don’t Look Away

Sinn Féın leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill intend to travel to the USA for St Patrick’s Day, despite US support for Israel in its sustained attack on Gaza (Indo). The SDLP has said that it will not travel to the White House (Bel Tel). Sinn Féın say they will use the trip to promote business opportunities in Northern Ireland. The Taoıseach will also be in DC, while the Tánaıste will be in Vancouver (Breaking News).

These posters are in west and south Belfast, from https://socialistdemocracy.org/ and the Socialist Party (NI) (web).

“Tell your politicians… boycott the White House. We’re all running out of time to be on the right side of history. Don’t let genocide-mongerers be pandered to in your name.”

“Don’t look away. 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza. End the genocide.”

“Boycott genocide Joe. No greenwash at the White House. Leo/Mıcheál/Mary Lou stay away from St Patrick’s Day celebrations! Solidarity with Palestine.”

“Tell local politicians… Boycott the White House or… we will never forgive you. We will never vote without recalling which politicians partied with the gleeful killers of thousands of Palestinians. We will never forget. We will never let you forget.”

An additional poster can be seen in the Paddy Duffy Collection.

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Sh’ma Yisrael

“I stand with Israel.” These two stickers expressing support for Israel are in (PUL) Cluan Place, in east Belfast.

See also: Ulster & Israel | אי כניעה

For Ian Ogle, see Justice For Ian Ogle.

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Protect Our Children

“No illegal immigration – protect our children.” The January Fact Sheet from gov.uk on 2023’s measures against illegal migration includes a “Small Boats Operational Command” with a staff of 500 people to tackle “illegal migration by small boats”. Summary statistics for small-boat arrivals can be found on WP. Stopping the boats was one of the government’s “five key priorities” in March, 2023 (Reuters) and included in the Bill approved in July (gov.uk). The plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was declared illegal by the Supreme Court in November (Reuters).

This small sticker on the Mersey Street street-sign is in east Belfast. The source of the need to “protect children” is unknown; the attacker outside Gaelscoıl Choláıste Mhuıre in Dublin in November was originally from Algeria (it is not known how he arrived) and a naturalised Irish citizen since 2014 (WP).

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Justice For Ian Ogle

Two men were given life sentences on Thursday for the murder of Ian Ogle in 2019, pleading guilty but on the basis of intent to cause serious harm rather than to kill. The trial of three others on a murder charge will begin on Tuesday (iTV | BBC).

Ogle lived in Cluan Place in east Belfast, site of these stickers and many other tarps and posters since his death. See previously: (2020) Justice For Ian Ogle | (2021) The Leaders Of This People Cause Them To Err | Remember Your Own | (2022) For His Family | What Fire Does Not Destroy It Hardens

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If I Must Die

“If I must die/Let it bring hope.” The annual march in remembrance of the victims of Bloody Sunday, 1972, was this year dedicated to the victims of the on-going attack by Israel on the Gaza Strip (Irish News). For the occasion, Free Derry Corner was papered over (by Adam “Spicebag” Doyle – RN | Irish Times) with words from a poem (Xitter) of Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer, who was killed by Israeli forces on December 7th (Al Jazeera | WP).

For teddy-bears and soft toys in Belfast, see It Could Be You and Boycott Israeli Genocide.

Free Derry Corner has two Visual History pages: front | rear

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The Rangers That I Love

Here are images of murals from the interior and the outside patio of the Rangers Supporters Club (Fb) in Carrickfergus. January 2nd, 1971 – included in the panel above – is the date of the Ibrox disaster, in which 66 people died (WP). “Fleshers’ Haugh” [Butchers’ Low-Lying Meadow] – included in the panel below – is the part of Glasgow Green where Rangers played their games in the first three years of the club’s existence (Scotland Guide). Edmiston Drive (above) and Copland Road (third image) are streets adjacent to the stadium.

Also from the Club: a gallery of Rangers’ Managers in We Welcome The Chase | commemorative murals to the 36th Division in A Name That Equals Any In History, the three Scottish soldiers in Highland Fusiliers, and to the UDR in Some Gave All | various others from the laneway and courtyard in We Don’t Do Walking Away.

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we are the people follow follow our lads had a dream the blue blue sea of ibrox absent friends we will remember them all taigs are targets our club will never die

Saoırse Don Phalaıstín

“Saoırse don Phalaıstín [freedom for Palestine]/فلسطين حرة [free Palestine]” and “Ireland stands with Palestine/ايرلندا تقف مع فلسطين” – CYM [Connolly Youth Movement (web)] sticker with a mash-up of the Palestinian and Irish flags and a key that represents the keys that about 700,000 Palestinian householders took with them when they fled their homes in the Nakba of 1948.

See previously: 105 Years Of Balfour | His Land, His Legs, His Life.

Bridge Street, Belfast

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Saoırse Don Phalaıstín

The “put/give it back, thief” imagery that we saw used for the Lough Neagh protest (and much earlier in republican murals) is used on an “Israel, get out of Palestine” sticker on the bollard now outside Cultúrlann McAdam-O’Fiaich that originally came from McAdam’s Soho foundry in Townsend Street. (A sticker in worse condition was also seen in Israel Get Out Of Palestine.)

“Caıth bomaıte ar son na Palaıstíne. Seol ríomhphost chuıg gach ceannaıre polaıtiúıl sa tír. – Caırde Palestine.” [Spend a moment on Palestine’s behalf. Send an e-mail to every political leader in the land. – Friends of Palestine]

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Israel Get Out Of Palestine

These images were taken in the lower and middle Falls, west Belfast. As might be expected, there is some reaction to the current conflict between Hamas and Israel: “Victory to the resistance – Free Palestine!” and “#NotMyKing” are at the closed-up Mac Diarmada club at Sráid Phort Láirge (see previously: CIRA GHQ); “Israel get out of Ireland” is on a crossing button in Beechmount.

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The Shroud

A poster of ‘the sacred heart of Jesus’ is blackened and scored out in Cliftonville Avenue, north Belfast.

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