“Don’t be ashamed of your story – It will inspire others.” “You are amazing – remember that.” The Belfast ‘Darkness Into Light’ event for suicide-prevention (a walk to greet the sunrise) was held in Ormeau Park on May 11th, and the park was decorated with lots of inspirational messages and stencils from organisations including PIPS (Public Initiative For Prevention Of Suicide And Self-Harm tw | Fb) and Pieta House (web | tw) (with electric ireland).
Congratulations to Conor McClure (web | ig | Fb) on his newly-minted Masters degree, and for this piece in Kent Street for Hit The North 2019. The annual degree show begins on June 8th in the Art College.
The first Dáıl Éıreann met in 1919 in the wake of a Sınn Féın sweep of the elections of 1918. Current leader Mary Lou McDonald addressed her deputies at a centenary commemoration, recounting the rise of the party: “They banished us, imprisoned us and bereaved us. But still the people spoke.” The mural above presents a montage of historical images, from the women of Wicklow (Barton) and Dublin (Mulcahy) being urged to exercise their new right to vote (also Arthur Griffith in East Cavan), to Bobby Sands and Owen Carron, to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. (Cormac’s Fight Back was turned into a mural on the Springfield Road.)
Petitions with over 100,000 signature must be debated by Westminster MPs. At 4:30 this afternoon MPs will debate (without voting) a petition to give British soldiers – and particularly paratroopers who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles – immunity. Supporters of granting immunity are upset by recent reports on government policy (from Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt) suggesting that service in the North will not be included in any such bill (BelTel) and/because paramilitaries would also be included (Shropshire Star). See previously: Stop The Witch Hunt.
The poster above (at the top of the Shankill) from a group calling itself Northern Ireland Crown Forces Veterans For Justice, calls for people to rally in support of soldier. “We demand that the British Government must enact protective legislation, whilst they are engaged in the Defence of our Country and its People. This must cover Past, Present & Future deployments. We also demand that the British Government rescind the findings of the discredited Saville Inquiry, and the apologies made by Politicians, which were not made in our name.”
Tonight’s second round of performances in the Eurovision Song Contest sees the Irish entry take the stage. (The UK’s song has a bye into Friday night’s finals.) The competition is taking place in Tel Aviv, Israel, which has prompted the BDS movement to urge a boycott of the event. Among those lodging a protest are Gael Force Art, who took to Slıabh Dubh last weekend with a large Palestinian flag. Article 11 of UN Declaration 194 asserts that refugees displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war should be able to return home.
James Connolly was executed on May 12th, 1916. Both the (freshly painted) Connolly plaque shown above and the Martin Meehan mural on the adjacent wall paint the struggle of the republican prisoners and the Provisionals of the ‘Troubles’ as descendants of 1916’s Easter Rising. Several name-plaques have been added to (what is now officially titled) the ‘Republican Prisoners Memorial Wall’ compared to the number seen in September.
For close-ups of the door and sculptured rocks, see Father Time.
The inquest into the Ballymurphy Massacre – the killings of 11 people from August 9th to 11th, continues, with testimony this past week from former Paratrooper Henry Gow (Irish News | BBC-NI). The image above shows Hugh Mullan being shot from Springmartin while going to the aid of a neigbour, Bobby Clarke; he is waving a white Babygro (BallymurphyMassacre.com). The Paratrooper is distinguished by his red beret.
The mural was originally painted by Rısteard Ó Murchú in 2008 and displayed first on the Whiterock Road then around the corner on the Springfield Road; the location of the repainted board is at the Glenalina Road entrance to the area, in the spot of the former 1916 GPO mural (which had lasted seventeen years before the wall was re-plastered and whitewashed in 2017).
“This plaque is dedicated to the 11 innocent civilians murdered by members of the British Parachute regiment in August 1971. Fr Hugh Mullan, Frank Quinn, Noel Phillips, Joan Connolly,
Danny Teggart, Joseph Murphy, Eddie Doherty, John Laverty, Joseph Corr, Paddy McCarthy, John McKerr. Donated by the Frank McCann Cumann, Hamilton [Scotland] (Fb).”
“For what died the sons of Roısín?” The Dogs of IRA D Company [second battalion, Belfast brigade] are added onto the mural of native son and first blanket man, Kieran Nugent: Nugent is reported to have said to his mother, “If they want me to wear a uniform they’ll have to nail it to my back.”
After suffering a lot of damage in a fairly short time, the PSNI land-rover-cum-ice-cream-van by Leo Boyd (web) and Laura Nelson (ig) – see Freshly Made For You! – has been stripped off and replaced with this clockwork version.
The PSNI land-rover is a familiar Boyd subject – see Off The Ledge for a list.
Extramural Activity 