“Joe Biden, globalist. Not welcome in Ireland.” Joe Biden landed in Belfast yesterday and was greeted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (Bel Tel | Reuters). This morning, he will deliver at the Belfast campus of UU, before heading south to Louth, Dublin, and Mayo (Journal).
This is an Ógra Shinn Féin (ig | web – youth division of Sinn Féin Poblachtach) sticker in Divis Street; they also have a “Joe Biden, warmonger” version (tw).
In the same vein is the poster below from the “Belfast Anti-war group” advertising rally outside city hall and an upcoming conference at Queen’s: “No to Biden, no to war”
Below, second, from the Shankill: “Big Jock Knew”, that is Celtic manager Jock Stein knew of the sexual abuse of Boys Club manager Jim Torbett. Torbett was sacked by Stein in 1974 but returned to the position in the 1980s. Torbett was tried in 1998 for crimes during the earlier time-period and served 30 months, and again in 2018, for various offenses, receiving a sentence of six years (WP). More charges are to be heard in April, 2023 (Daily Record). The phrase is the title of song sung by fans of teams playing against Celtic (WP).
Below, third, from city centre (and also seen on the Falls): “The sporting wing [of the IRA]” is a play on the idea that Sınn Féın was the “political wing” of the IRA and so Celtic FC is the group’s “sporting wing”. Instead of Celtic’s usual four-leaf clover, three hooded gunmen fire a funeral volley.
The GAA has also been given the title (BelTel 2020); Sammy Wilson, as DUP press officer defending UDA attacks on GAA halls in Belfast and Banbridge, in September 1993, described the GAA as “the IRA at play” (WP). (For a history of the two organisations, see Irish Peace Process.) Instead of Celtic’s usual four-leaf clover, three hooded gunmen fire a funeral volley.
In his Letter From A Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr wrote, “I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The marchers portrayed in the poster above carry placards supporting immigrants (“No human is illegal”), the poor (“Poverty is the worst form of violence”) and Palestine. The poster calls for participants in the annual march, which retraces the route taken on the fateful day in 1972, beginning at Creggan shops and proceeding to Free Derry Corner. Yesterday’s march concluded a week of talks and other commemorative events. Today – January 30th – is the fifty-first anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry.
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.
Following yesterday’s east Belfast “Peace or proticol” graffiti, today we have “Peace or protocol – it’s your decision”, aimed at Leo Varadkar on the day that he again became Taoiseach (Irish Times) and repeating his words back to him from a speech in 2018: “The possibility of a return to violence is very real”. At that meeting, Varadkar was anticipating violence by anti-Agreement republicans in response to customs posts on the Ireland-Northern Ireland border, and brought a newspaper describing the death of four customs officials, two lorry drivers, and three IRA volunteers at a Monaghan post in 1972 (BelTel).
The authors of this poster are not known, but the parallel statement (mutatis mutandis) would be that anti-Protocol agents – perhaps the “young loyalists” that the UVF “can no longer contain” (UK Daily; see also RTÉ from November) – might return to acts of violence such as the 1974 “Dublin & Monaghan Bombings” that killed 33 people – in the background of the poster is part of a photograph (Irish News) of bomb damage in Talbot Street – if the Protocol’s “Irish Sea border” is not removed.
The instance of the poster shown in today’s post is on the edge of Tiger’s Bay, on North Queen Street; the posters have also been appearing in east Belfast: Newtownards Rd (at Templemore Ave tw; at Dee St tw) | Beersbridge Rd (reddit).
A group called Let’s Talk Loyalism greeted the new premier with a mock funeral in Dublin for the Good Friday Agreement; the flowers behind the coffin read “GFA is dead” (tw).
“Britain out of Ireland, Ireland out of the E.U.” Strict Irish independence is the policy of the IRSP (web). Back in 1972, Sinn Féin campaigned against Irish membership in the EEC (DFA), but (in the north) supported the ‘remain’ position on Brexit (UNU).
“Britain in Palestine & Ireland” The Balfour Declaration of November 1917 is seen as a pivotal moment in the history leading to the what is formally known as the State Of Israel, as it made the UK the first major government to endorse the idea of a homeland for Jews (WP).
The poster (for a talk in Cultúrlann) is in Allworthy Avenue; the board is on Northumberland Street. The latter draws parallels between Ireland and Palestine: homelands partitioned for British imperialist interests, struggles for freedom met with British barbarism … forbidden from speaking their native tongue, faiths outlawed … . About 650 former RIC members were recruited to the “British Gendarmarie” that would police what was called “Mandatory Palestine” (Palestine Studies | Irish History) after WWI.
The League Of Nations mandate putting the UK in change of the Palestinian territory was replaced (in 1947) by a UN plan for partition, which triggered an internal war between Jews and Arabs, and when the UK ended the mandate and evacuated from Palestine in May 1948, Israel declared independence and neighbouring Arab states entered the conflict. About 700,000 Arabs were displaced during the fighting. Key48 (tw) advocates for the right of return and uses as a symbol the keys that householders took with them when they fled.
One row of street art around a construction site might look much like another, but do not be alarmed – this is your first time in Kent Street, Belfast.
Work by Leo Boyd (web | ig) – and five other artists – is currently showing in The National in High Street. Today’s post shows 2019’s ‘Belfast Romances’ – still rolling in Victoria Street – featuring many familiar Boydisms: When Urban Love Goes Wrong, Belfast Kitty Hall, DeLorean cars, Godzilla – “The monster created by atoms gone wild! Escaped from Belfast zoo”, and the wind-up police land-rover.
Extramural Activity 