A confederate flag (strictly, the battle flag of the Army Of Northern Virginia) with skull (with an eye-patch!) and cross-bones alongside a “King William III Prince of Orange” flag.
Today’s post is an assortment of republican posters, many of them in distressed condition, book-ended by the 1916 Societies’ Easter Parade posters from 2015 and 2016.
Click image to enlarge Copyright 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle X02802 X03140 X03444 X03462 X03617 X03618 X03619 X03613 lecky rd westland st beechmount ave clowney st ? ? ? ? liam hannaway sean o’neill hungering for justice wolfe tone bobby sands stormont abuse of irish republican prisoners ferguson racism in the US unfinished revolution free newry 10 maghaberry http://continuitysinnfein.org/
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.
The HBO show Game Of Thrones wrapped up its sixth season recently in its customary fashion, which is to say, with intrigue and murder.
Interior scenes for the show are shot at the old Harland & Wolff ‘Paint Hall’ in the Titanic Quarter. The filming is parodied in the image above — the boom operator is wearing a Northern Ireland football top and has a tattoo saying “Is grá liom uisce” (“I love water”) on his bicep.
A 2012 Belfast Telegraph opinion piece asked “Is it Orangefest or vodka and Orangefest?” This year sees a campaign to curb alcohol consumption during marching season (including both the centenary of the Somme on July 1st and the traditional Twelfth celebration of the Battle of the Boyne) using the slogan “It’s about the battle not the bottle” and the hashtag #battlenotbottle. Here is a NewsLetter article on the campaign, which includes 25,000 beermats bearing the message.
It also contains (as shown in the wide shot, below) figures for both the number of casualties suffered by the 36th (Ulster) Division on July 1 at the Battle of the Somme (5,500) and the number of Irishmen who served in the Great War (200,000).
The image below is from a Twelfth bonfire collection point in Belvoir in April, threatening a fifty pound fine for anyone caught dumping unwanted material. The image above of a collection point near Sandy Row articulates what is unwanted: ironing boards, chairs, washing machines, sofas, sinks, fridges, wheels, comfy chairs, toilets, beds, stoves. This Belfast Telegraph article includes a good image of the pallets gathered in the car-park.
After a year without any change, work appears to have stopped on this UVF mural in Ballyearl. It links together the Ulster Volunteers of the first world war (shown on the left of the wall, with a Victoria Cross, Carson and the covenant, and a cross on the battlefield of Flanders) and the modern UVF (represented by a hooded gunman with rifle brought to bear, and the Nissen huts of Long Kesh. An orange lily and red poppy complete the tableau.
“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.