This is a west Belfast instance of INLA graffiti – seen previously in Derry (Saoırse Go Deo) – celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the group’s founding, in December, 1974.
The Lasaır Dhearg (web | tw) stencils go back to 2020; see Britain’s Occupation Of Ireland.
Waterford St, west Belfast, replacing Victory To The [Palestinian] Resistance.
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This new three-storey mural by Dee Craig (Fb) is at the city end of Newtownards Road and so serves as a highly-visible introduction to east Belfast. People arriving in the area are now greeted with a vintage image of a smiling bearded man in a cloth cap, surrounded by occupations from the industrial era: “Cobbler, rag’n’bone man, fish monger, welder, builder, sweep, carpenter, window cleaner, butcher”, capped off by an inspirational “Be your best”, with yellow highlights that match the colour of the shipyard cranes Samson and Goliath (see the third image).
In being overshadowed by the mural, the “Let’s Twist Again” sculpture on the plaza in front of the business centre now becomes a symbol of east Belfast rather than the symbol. It too features east Belfast’s “industrial past” (BelTel), using rope as a metaphor for community: “By being bound together in a common cause, the natural tendency for each twist, fibre, yarn, and strand to separate, only serves to make the rope stronger.”
On the wall behind the sculpture and below the mural is one of the Eastside Lives Heritage Trail (pdf) figures, Jane Scott, whose fifteen-year-old son Samuel fell to his death from a ladder while working on the ship in 1910. She supposedly cursed the ship and it sank two years later.
For a straight-on shot, see the post at the Paddy Duffy collection.
Images of the completed piece are from March 27th and 29th. The in-progress image below is from March 18th.
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Work by Wee Nuls (web) in Castle Mall (off High Street), Antrim.
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The black shamrock is a symbol of Irish neutrality dating back to 2006 (Irish Times | Pensive Quill). In the light of the attack on Gaza it is being used by the IPSC and other pro-Palestinian causes as a symbol of solidarity. This shamrock, on Free Derry Corner, has been augmented with two small Palestinian flags, one with a dove and the word “peace” (shown below).
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Copyright © 2024 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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This RNU (Fb) board calls for attendees at a gathering in Milltown cemetery to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916. The signatories to the Proclamation can be seen above and behing the large Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann gravestone on the right.
Glen Road, on the grounds of the old Andersonstown RUC barracks.
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Leo Boyd (web) returns to a familiar subject – the PSNI land-rover – this time going over the edge into deep water. See previously: Freshly Made For You | Winding Up The Peelers | 999 99 | Peeling In The Sun | X-Wing Land Rover | My First Meat Wagon (which dates back to 2018). Also: My 1st Meat Wagon in Paddy Duffy’s collection.
Church Street, Belfast city centre
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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In 2000, during the Second Intifada, Palestinian teenager Faris Odeh was photographed by an AP photographer in the act of throwing a stone at an Israeli tank. He was shot and killed a few days later and the image became a symbol of resistance. (A mural of the photograph was painted in Springhill: see David And Goliath.) The iconic image is updated here for Israel’s current invasion of Gaza, showing a young girl with a soft toy standing in front of a tank that is bedecked with the flags of the European Union, France, the USA, the UK, and Germany.
The F-16 jets and rubble and child with teddy-bear are the same as in the We Stand With Palestine mural in Ardoyne.
For the teddy-bears and soft toys, see Boycott Israeli Genocide and It Could Be You.
For the Easter Rising mural, see The Undauntable Thought.
South Link, Andersonstown, west Belfast. Launched November 18th, 2023 (PD Fb).
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from the river to the sea will be free Mickey Doherty
The “Put it back, thief” imagery is applied here to Palestine and Israel, except that there is no piece of territory in the Israeli arm, only a grasping hand, and the slogan is “Saoırse don Phalaıstín”.
In case you need any reminding of the trope, a close-up from the Kneecap mural in Hawthorn Street is included directly below; in CNR muraling, the imagery dates back to Stad Maggie Anoıs (1986) and England Get Out Of Ireland (1989). Similar imagery, based on a Soviet poster, was seen recently in Give It Back, Thief, concerning Lough Neagh.
Finally below is “An Phalaıstín” with the flag as a shield, as though the country were a sporting club.
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Here are a few pieces from the so-called “peace” line dividing CNR and PUL west Belfast, featuring, above, ‘Road rage Ruth’ by Kilian (ig). Previously by Kilian on the “peace” line: The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky. See also the works done for HTN23, HTN22, and HTN21.
For wild-style from December (2023) see Bombing The “Peace” Line. For ten or so pieces of street art and wild-style writing on the wall from May 2023, see Ready To Rumble.
The obscured piece by Bust and the “World Wall Stylers” tag can be seen in better condition in New Levels, Same Devils (2022). “Ríoghnach” is an Irish-language name.
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Here is an assortment of images concerning boycotts of Israeli goods in response to the invasion of Gaza. Above, “Ban Israeli goods” on the wall of the Alexandra Park Tesco, north Belfast; below, V-for-victory fingers as scissors snipping barbed wire (bdsmovement.net) in a shop window in Andersonstown, west Belfast; “BDS” [Boycott, divestment, sanctions] and “IPSC” [Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which maintains a list of Israeli goods] next to a painted Palestinian flag in the middle Falls, west Belfast; plus an Artists Against Genocide (ig) sticker.
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Extramural Activity 