In a throw-back to earlier times (the RUC changed to the PSNI in 2001), a volunteer armed with a Kalashnikov greets visitors to the area: “Welcome to the Bogside. IRA. RUC beware.”
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Education is our passport to the future. Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” This ‘parachute cloth’ mural, which promotes education over gangs, joins three UVF murals in Pine Street, Donegall Pass, south Belfast. (For two of those murals, see Defenders Of The Pass | South Belfast UVF 2nd Batt.)
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Cairns & Co. Ltd were not only “Manufacturing and export chemists” but (according to the 1908 street directory) “Aerated and mineral water manufacturers” with works at “Balmoral Springs, Lisburn Road”.
This post is the fifth and final board on Donegall Road. In order of the wide shot, below, the five are: RIC At Celtic Park | Ruby Murray | Ronnie Adams | Broadway United FC | Cairns & Co. Ltd
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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IRPWA (Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association) stencil. Below is a wide shot showing all three of recent pieces in Beechmount (prior to the destruction of the one on the right): No Steps Backward | Political Dissent Is Not A Crime! | The Butcher’s Apron.
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“We must take no steps backward, our steps must be onward. If we don’t, the martyrs that died for you, for me, for this country … will haunt us forever” — the words of Máıre Drumm from an anti-internment rally in Dunville Park on 10th August, 1975 (RN) are featured against a backdrop of female volunteers in Cumann Na mBan wearing berets and holding rifles.
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X03498 beechmount ave ww.irpwa.com
Celtronic brands itself as “Ireland’s leading electronic music festival”. This years festival takes place in clubs across “Derry, Ireland” until July 3rd. On the rear of Free Derry Corner.
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“From Warsaw to Berlin” — Polish airmen in England, in the 300 Mazovian bomber squadron, write a “dedication” on a bomb headed for Germany in August 1941. The plane added as a background is perhaps an Avro Lancaster, while the one in the middle ground (in the wide shot, below) is a Vickers Wellington. According to the information board (shown last, below) “many Polish servicemen remained in Great Britain and Ireland after the [Second World] war, laying the foundations for a large Polish community that now (in Northern Ireland) numbers over 30,000.”
Here is the original image (which has been coloured for the mural).
Previously: Love Demands Sacrifice, which celebrated the 303 squadron and The Silent Unseen, which celebrated the 1st Polish parachute regiment.
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X03551 X03552 X03553 benburb st formed on July 1st 1940 fairey battles antwerp boulogne calais ostend dunkirk pawel wojchiechowski ballyhalbert bramoote swinderby faldingworth air marshal arthur harris michael bentine cologne launched 2016-06-10 housing executive shared history ACT initiative
“Since 1970 seventeen people killed – including eight children”. A vintage poster against plastic bullets (see also Plastic Death in the Peter Moloney Collection for a mural) is part of this Beechmount Avenue mural showing a candle for each of the victims. The first listed (Rowntree, Molloy, Friel) were killed by rubber bullets, the rest by plastic; plastic bullets took over from rubber bullets in 1975 (WP).
Panels 10-15 of the ‘murdered’ follow to the right of the Plastic Bullets board, here presented two-at-a-time. The 11th panel (the second one shown here, with Francis Bradley in top left) was previously the ninth panel; it is not clear why its position was swapped.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02897 X02898 X02899 X02900 geddis stewart donnelly whitters carol anne carol ann kelly julie livingstone duffy norah mccabe doherty mcguiness mcconomy white downes duffy
Sınn Féın candidate Pat Sheehan attempted to shore up support among republicans by using the image shown above and below for his campaign propaganda in the recent Assembly elections, hearkening back to the 1981 hunger strike, in which a 23-year-old Sheehan went 55 days without food, until the strike was called off. The tactic was successful and Sheehan was re-elected from his Belfast West constituency.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Two Beechmount murals today on the same theme: republican prisoners of war in Maghaberry and Hydebank (site of prisons for women and for young offenders).
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03410 X03405 beechmount ave irish republican prisoners welfare association join RNU smash stormont cogus british
Extramural Activity 