A socially-themed mural in east Belfast: On the dark, down, side: (peer-)pressure, crime, consequence, death, illness, breakdown, suicide. On the up, bright, side; education, work, successful, “enable, empower, equip” (the motto of CharterNI)
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03336 donegall rd drugs drinking computer wash car playing children youth fasa unite
Arrayed against the forces of the British Army (which are shown laying siege to the Dublin GPO during the Easter Rising in armoured cars and in sniping positions in the foreground of the mural, along the whole length of the wall) are various symbols of Irish nationalism:
Oliver Sheppard‘s 1911 statue of Cú Chulaınn dying (see the Visual History page);
the pikemen of the 1798 Rebellion (featured in Éırí Amach 1798);
the four provinces of Ireland;
Érıu the mythological queen of Ireland/Éıre as designed by Richard J King/Rísteard Ó Cíonga; Easter lilies;
the emblems of Na Fıanna Éıreann and Cumann Na mBan on either side of a quote from (The Mainspring) Sean MacDiarmada, “We bleed that the nation may live; I die that the nation may live. Damn your concessions, England: we want our country”;
a phoenix rising from the flames of the burning Dublin GPO (inspired by Norman Teeling’s 1998 painting The GPO Burns In Dublin);
the GPO flying an ‘Irish Republic’ flag and a Tricolour;
portraits of signatories and other rebels — (left) Padraig H. Pearse, Thomas J Clarke, Eamonn Ceannt, Thomas MacDonagh, (right) Countess Markievicz, James Connolly, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas Plunkett;
the declaration of independence, placed over the advertising box of AA Accountants – see the in-progress shot below.
For more work-in-progess images, see the previous entry, Éırí Amach 1798. At the very bottom is a quote from the mother of Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly, Harriet Kelly: “We want the freedom of our country and your soldiers out.”
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03345 X03346 X03136 mcquillan st Cú Chulaınn Cróga who fears to speak
The pikemen of 1798 go into battle under the flag of the United Irishmen in a detail from a new mural on the Falls Road for the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Below are work-in-progress images showing artists Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly and Bill Bradley.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03126 X03128 X03129 X03132 mcquillan st halberd
In 1955, Ruby Murray — who was born and raised on Donegall Road — had a #1 hit with Softly, Softly (youtube) and it stayed at the top for three weeks. She went on to have six other top-ten hits that year and in one week five of her songs were in the top twenty.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03184 donegall rd
At the corner of the Falls Road and Northumberland Street, consumerism and republicanism collide.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Immaculata amateur boxing club (Fb) (or simply “The Mac”) in the Lower Falls will celebrate its 70th birthday in May this year. This long mural, painted in 2015 and featuring boxing past and present, is in Servia Street, near the club’s Albert Street home.
Previously: Come On The Mac
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A woman standing in the sea befriends a giant salmon in this mural by Lesley Cherry (web | Fb) behind the Windsor Women’s Centre (Fb) on Broadway in south Belfast. “Trust – Knowledge – Grow – Teach – Play – Love”. Close-up of the left-hand side below.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03335 X03334 ebor st previously located on Donegall Rd
Artist emic (Eoin McGinn) left this parting piece on the shutters of LOFT (Belfast Art Studio & Collective web | Fb) which had to leave its 99 North St address in January due to the impending development of the area. Below is the Sonic The Hedgehog piece it replaces (which itself is on top of the re:Store couch.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Twinbrook Road shops have been moved out to the edge of the street and the murals that were on the old shops are now gone or obscured, including the long wall of hunger-striker portraits had been updated annually since 2006. That mural has been condensed into a new, printed, image, placed on the side of the shops facing the Stewartstown Road. As before, it shows blanketmen Freddie Toal and Hugh Rooney, Sands, and three volunteers firing a volley of shots, with the portraits of the strikers who died in the 70s and 80s along the bottom.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03304 X03303 twinbrook rd colin commemoration committee stagg gaughan sands mcdonnell hurson lynch doherty devine mcilwee o’hara hughes mccreesh
“Sell Out” with arrows pointing to three red dots on the wall of the Republican Ex-Prisoners Association (also housing SNAP – Safer Neighbourhood Ardoyne Project – and Glór An Tuaiscirt (Voice Of The North – an Irish-language and cultural organisation)) in Ardyone.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03300 brompton rd cumann na h-iarchimi poblachtacha
Extramural Activity 