Chains And Bonds Have No Part In Us

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IRA commander Seán McCaughey spent five years on the blanket in Portlaoise prison and died (in 1946) after 23 days on hunger strike (including 13 days refusing liquids). He is commemorated in Ardoyne because he lived there from the age of five onward. (The Pensive Quill.)

“I have no prouder boast to say, I am Irish and have been privileged to fight for the Irish people for Ireland. If I have a duty, I will perform it to the full with the unshakable belief that we are a noble race and the chains and bonds have no part in us.” Óglach Francis Hughes 1981

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03956 Ardoyne ave RNU óglaıgh na héıreann

Ich Bin Ein Belfaster

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Travel site In Your Pocket recently solicited a good term for people from Belfast. In 1963, JFK went to West Berlin and expressed solidarity with the encircled residents by saying “Ich bin ein Berliner” (inviting the misunderstanding that he was a Berliner Krapfen or jelly doughnut”, but the spirit of the message was clear). (WP has more info and video.) The stencil above puts Kennedy in Belfast: Ich bin ein Belfaster.

Thanks to Brendan McGarry for today’s image.

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Copyright © 2016 Brendan McGarry
X03927  Lisburn Road

By The Campfire Light

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Here’s a piece of street art (in Kent Street) showing two figures out at night, perhaps dancing by the campfire or toasting marshmallows or worshipping a tree god? The wide shot shows how the piece was made to fit with the Gorny Goohoo already in place.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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RIP Plum Smith

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UVF volunteer William “Plum” Smith entered Long Kesh in 1972 at the age of 18 for his role in the attempted murder of a Catholic. After his release, he became an ITGWU shop steward, a community organizer, and spokesperson for the PUP. Smith died in June of this year (2016); the message in today’s images appears on the Cupar Way “peace” line.

Short bio from BalaclavaStreet | Gareth Mulvenna tweet of Plum’s bio at age 20 from the Orange Cross | Tele account of the funeral.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Carrickfergus Castle

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The initial Carrickfergus Castle was built in 1177 and today functions as a major tourist attraction. The foot soldier in chainmail and kettle hat in the image above can be seen (in statue form) at the castle, along with a variety of other soldiers from the Norman and English forces that held the castle throughout the centuries.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03759 X03758 Davys Street

Life Springs From Death

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The new replacement board commemorating the Gibraltar 3 (Maıréad Farrell, Dan McCann, and Seán Savage “executed by British crown forces 6th March 1988) uses words from Pearse’s oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa. Not the more common “the fools, the fools …” but “Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations” (used previously in Strabane in 1990 – M00860). The board is “dedicated to the memory of Thomas and Edith Haddock”.

Here is the previous board. The border in the image above is from the board before that – see The Gibraltar Three.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03944 Hawthorn St

Owl Doll Millies

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At the turn of the century, almost 100,000 people worked in Belfast mills; the smokestack from a mill appears alongside a H&W crane and the Titanic centre in the skyline of Faigy’s (Fb | Tw) piece for CNB/HTN. One site on linen production in and around Belfast notes that “machines were not properly guarded. Facial and hand injuries, ranging from lacerations to mutilations, were the most common”.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03850

To France And Flanders

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From Gertrude Street to France and Flanders: young men from the local area who fought and died at WWI’s western front are commemorated in a new mural in Martin Street in east Belfast: G McCune, H. Nabney, J. Burns, W. Duff, J. Fagan, A. Leckey, W. Nabney, M. Scott, R. C. Skillen, J. Watson, R. Harvey, S. Wright. Gertrude Street no longer exists; it was on the other side of Newtownards Road, opposite (the current) St Matthew’s church. The mural bears the emblem of the Gertrude Star Flute Band, which was founded there in 1961. CharterNI were also involved in the mural.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Loose Talk Costs Lives

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Republican graffiti in Meenan Square, Derry hearkening back to a 1970s poster (revived earlier in 2016 in this Belfast poster on the International Wall) cautioning people against undercover British agent and touts.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03615

Lost Duppy

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Two pieces by TLO. Above, “Have you seen Duppy?” Ian Paisley Jnr gets a strange mouse make-over, with a pink nose and Irish harp ears. Below, a sprung skull.

Previously by TLO: Demonizing Paisley, Three Studies Of Ian Paisley, and Ian Jong-un, Wee Angel, Taking The Hump, Derryrhoea.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03875 X03683 a malevolent spirit or ghost west african origin