Extramural Activity

The Mainspring

2016-02-082024-12-24Extramural Activity1 Comment

Seán Mac Dıarmada was born in Leitrim, left for Glasgow at age 15, but after two years returned to Belfast in 1905 (working on the trams) and – according to the new mural above – spoke from the back of a coal lorry in Clonard Street, outside the Clonard branch of the Ancient Order Of Hibernians. Mac Dıarmada was for a short time an AOH member, before moving on to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, which led to his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising and execution on May 12th of that year.

The title of today’s post is historian F.X. Martin’s assessment of Mac Dıarmada, quoted in a pamphlet on Mac Dıarmada from the National Library Of Ireland, which includes reproductions of letters from and about Mac Dıarmada. The NLI made more letters available today (2016-02-08). (See also this Irish Times write-up).

Previously: A 2013 Mac Dıarmada mural in Ardoyne.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03275 clonard st quigley’s coal merchants séan executed by the british for his role

Over A Barrel

2016-02-072024-12-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a snapshot from the protest camp at Twaddell Avenue, established in July 2013, which remains in place at the junction with the Crumlin Road. The most recent newspaper mention of the protest appears to be this December 29th report in the Newsletter.

For more, including the “civil rights” board behind the barrel, see Twaddell Protest Camp | Civil Rights Camp | Supporters Club | Let Them Home.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03228

Free Wee Rab

2016-02-042024-12-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This graffiti is in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast: “UFF – Free Wee Rab”. If you know who Wee Rab is or how he is being constrained, please e-mail or comment!

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03222 X03223 legann st

Derryrhoea

2016-02-032024-12-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is the latest political comment from TLO (we assume): DUP member and former Minister for Culture, Arts, and Leisure Gregory Campbell – MLA for East Londonderry– is shown suffering from “Derryrhoea”. In the upper posters, his hair is orange and tongue red, while in the lower poster he appears to be seeing and thinking feces. Campbell has been twice barred from speaking in the Assembly in the last 15 months.

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

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03251 hill st

Save The Shankill

2016-02-022025-02-26Extramural Activity2 Comments

03151 2015-10-20 Rangers Supporters Club d above+

Here is the second of two boards outside the Ulster Rangers Supporters Club (see also Doing Her Duty). The painting features a tram going under an Orange arch between the public baths on one side an Spin-A-Disc records on the other, surrounded by notable figures from the Shankill area.

Many thanks to Johnny Dougan of Shankill Area Social History (Fb) for the information below! Please e-mail or add a comment with additions or corrections.

Front, from left to right: Manchester United and Northern Ireland Soccer player Norman Whiteside (WP) and behind him boxer Davy Larmour and community worker Saidie Patterson (see WRDA), boxer Sammy (Cisco) Cosgrove, Senator Charlie McCullough (WP), Tommy Henderson, boxer Jimmy Warnock (original photograph here), Hugh Smyth (see previously Third Class Citizens), artist William Conor (see previously Conor’s Corner, Jack Henning (running), musician Belter Bell, writer Albert Haslett (Northern Visions interview).

Atop the tram: on the left is Jackie Redpath of the Save the Shankill Campaign (note other members of the group with placard on right; Northern Visions has a documentary about the Save The Shankill campaign) and Jack Higgins holding his book The Eagle Has Landed (WP). Up there too is Miss Sands, the music teacher in the Girls Model School, and historian Bobby Foster (Northern Visions interview). On the stairs are May Blood MBE and above her D.I. Nixon.

03149 2015-10-20 Rangers Supporters Club w+

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03151 X03149 shankill rd spin-a-disc public baths

God Approves Our Undertakings

2016-02-012025-11-23Extramural Activity1 Comment

The All-Seeing Eye Of Providence joins the Eye Of Horus in a conspiracy-minded mural by Visual Waste at the Muddlers’ Club in Belfast. The eye is familiar from Freemasons and the 1 dollar bill in US currency (and the Illuminati!). Also included – against a background consisting of a secret handshake, a skull, and a floating skeleton – are the Square & Compasses of the Freemasons (with a “G” for “God” or “geometry”) a set of scales weighing money, a crown, the word “FATE” tattooed across the knuckles, a keyhole, a gem, the dollar sign, a drop of water, and the Chi-Rho of Catholic and Coptic faiths.

To the left is another, smaller, piece – see The Wider Conspiracy.