poster/paste-up/sticker

We Must Choose Our Fate

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Three stickers of resistance in Belfast’s city centre: above, communistparty.ie confirms Marx’s prediction of capitalism’s inevitable failure; below, under-paid, over-worked, and mis-treated hospitality workers are encouraged to “give the goss on your boss”; next below, an old sticker calling for Northern Ireland to follow the Republic in adopting abortion leglislation (parliament.uk) – “not the church, not the state, we must choose our fate – #thenorthisnow [Image.ie]” (as well as a commercial sticker by the singer A.N.J.A.); finally below, from Sailortown, stickers from the IWW or wobblies (“one big union.ie“) and the United Tech & Allied Workers (“the past we inherit, the future we build”).

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Plastic Bullets Kill

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Norah McCabe died on July 9th, 1981, a day after being struck in the back of the head by a plastic bullet. The RUC claimed that they fired at a petrol bomber but footage from a Canadian TV crew on the Falls Road showed this to be false (Belfast Media).

Her husband Jim was involved in the “United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets” (web) founded in 1985 by Groves & Reilly. He died in January (2023) and mural in his memory was launched yesterday on Divis Street – see Jim McCabe.

There is a plaque and a memorial to McCabe at the spot where she was struck in the old Linden Street. These posters are at the family home on the Springfield Road.

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Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Vault Is Empty

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The Vault artists have cleared out of the old Met building in Tower Street and have been preparing their two new digs, in the Shankill Mission (Vault ig | FGB ig) and Marlbourough House in Victoria Street. The vestiges of their time in east Belfast linger on.

For the final image in better days, see Do You Own A Giant Building?

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We’re From The Coole

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More Sons Of Kai/KAI flute band (ig) markings in Rathcoole, Newtownabbey. See previously The Famous and Welcome To Our Homeland.

Rathcoole Drive/Rathcoole Gardens

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Peeling In The Sun

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A couple of Leo Boyd (ig) paste-ups of his PSNIce-Cream land-rover (previously a mural in Kent St) are peeling off the pole in North Street, perhaps in part because of the recent warm temperatures.

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Smash Fascism

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Here is a gallery of republican stickers on light poles – and one piece of graffiti – most from Lasaır Dhearg (web).

“Smash fascists, smash fascism.” For the Cliftonville murals in the background, see Red Army.
“Stop imperialist war planes.”
“The PSNI is not a normal police force.”
“Fascism unwelcome” – graffiti on Broadway
Maıréad Farrell “oppressed as a woman” – also used in Our Nation As A Whole; see also Just As Good As Others.
“Stormont can’t deliver.” with “Refugees Welcome“
“Solidarity will save them” – hunger strikers Sibel Balaç and Gökhan Yıldırım.
“Smash fascists, smash fascism.” Same sticker but in west Belfast.
“For a 32 county socialist republic” – with that other “red army” Marx, Engels, Lenin, Connolly,

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My Second Paste Up

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Here is a paste-up version of Leo Boyd’s (ig) HTN2021 piece My First Paste Up.

Union Street, Belfast city centre.

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Rotten And Corrupt

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“Rotten And Corrupt: Christopher Little (39) entered guilty pleas to nine charges at Belfast Crown Court last month – including attempting to have sex with a child. [Irish Times] 20 officers shared racist, sexist and misogynistic messages including texts and images which mocked Arabic and Islamic people. [Spotlight programme] Six PSNI officers all had hearings for an array of alleged offences. PSNI revealed they themselves had dismissed 11 police officers amid claims of over 130 misconduct cases throughout the force. [Belfast Live]”

It’s not clear who is behind these flyers in north Belfast; the harpist on the electical box is by Kerrie Hanna (ig).

New Lodge Road, Belfast.

Update: the posters have been removed (by the end of July, 2023).

See also the Visual History page for electrical boxes.

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Copyright © 2023 Cathal Woods
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Choose Life

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Voters go to the polls tomorrow in the loca government elections. Of the parties standing, the TUV, DUP, and – presumably this west Belfast household’s preference – Aontú are against the legal status of abortion in NI.

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X-Wing Land Rover

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Here is a Leo Boyd (ig) print of an x-wing police land rover – one in a series of land rovers: see previously: ice-cream-van land rover | wind-up land rover | surveillance land rover.

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