Loyal People’s Protest

“Since 2012” and lasting until the undetermined year “XXXX”. Protests against the restricted flying of the Union Flag at City Hall were held on a daily basis in the winter of 2012-2013 after the Council’s vote on December 3rd. It became a weekly protest perhaps in the spring and a group of die-hards continues to meet each Saturday. There does not seem to be a functioning public social media channel for “Loyal People’s Protest”; the numbers might be small enough that a private group chat is sufficient. The male in the top right of the placard is unknown; there have previously been media profiles of Billy and Ann Dickson (Belfast Live).

For background links, see Union Jack – Donegall Pass.

Previously from the railings: Eddie Supports The Flag. A tarp from earlier protests: British And Proud.

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In Yer Bubble

This Glen Road, Derry, streetart was painted by Peaball (ig) (with Glen Development Initiative) in September, 2021, and reflects the duality of experiences in living through the covid pandemic.

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We Welcome The Chase

“Let others come after us – we welcome the chase.” The exterior wall of the Carrickfergus Rangers Supporters Club presents a gallery of the club’s managers from 1899 to 2018. In order they are William Wilton, Bill Struth, Scot Symon, David White, William Waddell, Jock Wallace, John Greig, Graeme Souness, Walter Smith, Dick Advocaat, Alex McLeish, Paul Le Guen, Ally McCoist, Stuart McCall, Mark Warburton, Pedro Caixinha, Graeme Murty, Steve Gerrard (and since then, there have been Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Michael Beale, and (currently) Philippe Clement).

Also from the Club: commemorative murals to the 36th Division in A Name That Equals Any In History, the three Scottish soldiers in Highland Fusiliers, and to the UDR in Some Gave All | various others from the laneway and courtyard in We Don’t Do Walking Away, and from inside and from the side patio in The Rangers That I Love.

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the bluebells are blue youtube

يومنا قادم

The title is the Arabic translation of the Irish “Tıocfaıdh ár lá” taken from a Belfast mural, Freedom In Arabic. (“Tıocfaıdh ár lá” is commonly given in English as “our day will come”; Google reverses the Arabic into English as “Our day is coming”.) At the other end of the block (and above Fight The Rich, Feed The Poor) is a French or Spanish “Viva la resistance”; presumably intended to be “Vive la résistance” or “Viva la revolución”. But it’s a principle of interpretation at Extramural that the spelling (or the quality of the art) is not the point when people feel they are not being heard. In this case, the message is clear: “Free Palestine”.

The Easter lily and Palestinian flag with PFLP (Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine) emblem are to the right of Always Anti-Fascist and below the INLA board seen in Serious Trouble.

“RSYM” is the Republican Socialist Youth Movement (Fb).

Durrow Park, Derry.

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Resist!

The inverted red triangle has become a symbol of support for Palestine and Hamas, apparently because of its use in Hamas videos to indicate Israeli targets being blown up (Middle East Monitor | Al Jazeera video), as though a kind of cross-hairs.

In this Derry art, the red triangle has been given a Banksy-style presentation as the balloon of a child (reminiscent of Girl With Balloon in London and, given the context, Flying Balloon Girl in the West Bank) walking beneath the Lecky Road underpass.

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Let Your Hopes Bloom As The Cactus Blooms

Heba Zagout (ig) was a Palestinian artist and teacher who painted Palestinian women and scenes from everyday life, including one from 2022 of holiday fireworks over a Bethlehem skyline that includes both churches and mosques. (You can see the original acrylic on the Painting For Palestine facebook page). The painting has now been reproduced as a mural on the International Wall in CNR west Belfast. She and two of her children, Adam and Mahmoud, were killed in October in an Israeli air strike on Gaza. (Middle East Eye | Guardian)

The next mural (to the right) can be seen in Broken Family.

The image above is from February 7th. January 29th:

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Fight The Rich, Feed The Poor

“Fight the rich, feed the poor – Éıstıgí” (also “Free Gaza”) along Lecky Road in Derry’s Bogside.

Éıstıgí, or “listen, yous-uns” in Derry/Doıre, is the youth organisation associated with Soaradh (web); it promotes a socialist (and republican) ideology.

From February 2023:

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Peace Is The Greatest Victory

Normally the tourists’ graffiti on the Cupar Way “peace” wall amounts to “Patronising Slogans” but the Hamas-Israel conflict has brought international politics to the wall, with the Star Of David being replaced by a swastika and “Stop genocide in Gaza” in the same hand. There is a march at 1 p.m. today from Writers’ Square to the city hall, organised by the IPSC (Fb), .

The sticker on top of the swastika can be seen in Saoırse Don Phalaıstín.

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Protect Our Children

“No illegal immigration – protect our children.” The January Fact Sheet from gov.uk on 2023’s measures against illegal migration includes a “Small Boats Operational Command” with a staff of 500 people to tackle “illegal migration by small boats”. Summary statistics for small-boat arrivals can be found on WP. Stopping the boats was one of the government’s “five key priorities” in March, 2023 (Reuters) and included in the Bill approved in July (gov.uk). The plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was declared illegal by the Supreme Court in November (Reuters).

This small sticker on the Mersey Street street-sign is in east Belfast. The source of the need to “protect children” is unknown; the attacker outside Gaelscoıl Choláıste Mhuıre in Dublin in November was originally from Algeria (it is not known how he arrived) and a naturalised Irish citizen since 2014 (WP).

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Father, Protect Me

Here is a completed mural from the Painting For Palestine project (Fb) on the International Wall, Divis Street, Belfast, showing a man holding an injured child against a backdrop of razed buildings in Gaza. It is now 125 days since Israel began its war on Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7th and images of parents carrying their dead and injured children, and of the devastation of Gaza’s buildings, are now all too common – here is an Al Jazeera gallery from December.

Like the ‘Khan Younis mass grave’ (seen in Another Martyr In The Earth), this image is also by digital artist Saïd Hassan (ig). The next mural (to the right) can be seen in A Window To A Free Country.

The images above are from January 29th.

From January 26th:

For earlier images of the squaring and cartoon, see Painting For Palestine.

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