A robin sits atop the skull of a cat. Work by Glaswegian street artists Spore, Ejek, Rogue-One, and Vues Oner for the Release The Pressure festival in London/-Derry/Doire back on July 25-26th. See below for a shot of the whole thing and a video of the piece in production.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02755 X02754 alex spore
Stephen (or Stephan) “Steve” Kaczynski will go before a Turkish court on September 18th on charges of membership of the Marxist-Leninist ‘Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front’ (DHKP-C). (WP) In April, members of the group took over a courtroom and held a state prosecutor hostage; when special forces stormed the building, the hostage and two of his captors died. (Independent) Kaczynski, a freelance journalist from Scotland, is alleged to be instrumental in financing the group. Alternatively, (according to various newspaper reports) he is an undercover agent of the Germans (Daily Sabah) or the British (Brian Shaw). He was on hunger-strike in protest at the conditions in Maltepe #3 from June 25th to August 12th.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02803 rnu in west belfast are today leading the way in combating anti-social behaviour reclaiming republican values fighting the benefits cuts tackling the increased drug problem exposing the slum landlords rebuilding community pride the only secure community is an organised one socialism communism red star phoenix
Here are three images of Red Hand Commando boards and flags in the Bloomfield estate. They both feature a red hand with eagle’s wings over a six-pointed star and on the flag, the motto (in crude Gaelic) “Lamh Derg Abu” – “Onward, Red Hand” or “Red Hand To Victory”. The loyalist paramilitary group declared an official end to activities in 2007 (BBC-NI) and decommissioned its weapons by 2009.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02777 X02776 X02778 lámh dhearg abú
The eastern side of what was the island of Derry is called the Water side and the western side, although originally under water, became the Bog side in about 1600. The two murals shown here are on either side of the shops adjacent to the Bogside Inn. There is an excellent history of the area from 1162 to the construction of Rossville flats in 1966 at the Museum Of Free Derry.
The piece above is by RAZER (ig).
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02746 X03591 X02745 fáılte go taobh an bhogaıgh lily H-Block dove of peace celtic design
“UVF” on a red-white-and blue-painted electrical box, the only thing standing in the razed ground where Soudan Street used to be.
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Black taxis were first brought from England to Belfast in 1970 by locals who wanted to provide an alternative, and locally-based, transport system to augment the Citybuses which were sometimes cancelled and sometimes burned out. The board above commemorates eight drivers who were killed during the troubles: Michael Duggan, Jim Green, Harry Muldoon, Paddy McAllister, Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh, Thomas Hughes, Hugh Magee, and Paddy Clarke.
French documentary about black taxi drivers.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02905 west belfast taxi association community interest company dedicated to the memory of murdered in the service of their community providing belfast with a public transport system for over 40 years a dhia deán trocaire ar a nanamacha may god have mercy on their souls WBTA divis flats st peters 12/11/75 5/5/77 31/10/84 26/8/86 16/3/88 19/7/91 10/10/91 2/2/92
Calls for “truth” and “justice” concerning the killing in August, 1971, of 11 people from Ballymurphy, by the 1st Parachute Regiment during Operation Demetrius, the beginning of internment.
The final three panels (panels 16-18) of the ‘murdered’ follows to the right of the Ballymurphy board. (These are new additions, as compared with 2011.) They are then followed by the final board, to the WBTA.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“11 people in west Belfast from the Greater Ballymurphy neighbourhood were murdered by the British Army as internment without trial was violently carried out on August 9th, 1971. Proper police investigations were never undertaken and one has served a day in prison for causing these deaths. The familys of those murdered deserve and demand the truth be told by the state about its policies and actions of those who carried them out.”
Two boards about collusion in Beechmount Avenue. The first chronicles (both in words and images) alleged instances of collusion between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries, citing John Stevens, Peter Cory, and Nuala O’Loan – pages from the 2007 O’Loan report are shown in the second, below.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The British soldiers on the right of the board above are given red berets to indicate the Paratroop Regiment, which was the regiment involved in Derry’s Bloody Sunday.
“Springhill–Westrock massacre. Belfast’s Bloody Sunday. Time for truth! On the 9th July 1972 a team of British Army snipers took up firing positions in Corry’s timber yard overlooking the nationalist Springhill/Westrock estates. Within less than an hour five civilians lay dead and two critically wounded. Among the dead were three teenagers, a father of six and a priest on his way to administer the last rites to the dead and injured. There has never been a proper police investigation, and not one solider has spent a single day in prison in connection with their deaths. The families deserve, and demand the comprehensive facts be told by the British establishment. The truth costs nothing.”
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02901 Beechmount Ave John Dougal, Margaret Gargan, Fr Noel Fitzpatrick, David McCafferty, Patrick Butler
The McGurk’s Bar bombing of December, 1971 killed fifteen people – the most in a single incident during the troubles – capping what had already been a bloody year, including the “Ballymurphy Massacre” of July, in which 11 died, and starting another round of killings that would spread into the new year. Campaigners for an inquiry were busy this week in both Dublin and Belfast (Irish News).
The first nine panels of the ‘murdered’ follow to the right of the McGurk’s Bar board, presented here three-at-a-time. Note that the ninth panel (with Terry Enright in the top left) was previously the 11th panel; it is not clear why it has been moved left.
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“At 8:47 pm on Saturday 4th December 1971, a no-warning bomb, planted by British terrorists, exploded on the doorstep of family-run McGurk’s Bar. Fifteen innocent men, women and children perished. Those who were not crushed or slowly asphyxiated by masonry where horrifically burned to death when shattered gas mains burst into flames beneath the rubble. Nearly the same again were dragged from the debris alive. In the aftermath of the atrocity, the British and Unionist Governments, RUC police force and British military disseminated disinformation that the bomb was in-transit and that the civilians guilty by association, if not complicit in this act of terrorism. This is despite a mountain of forensic evidence including a witness statement that saw the bomb being planted and lit before the British terrorists escaped into the night. From the moment the bomb exploded and for 40 years since, the families and friends of those murdered have campaigned constitutionally and with great dignity to clear the names of their lived ones. It is a Campaign for Truth that continues to this day. Join us at themcgurksbarmassacre.com” “
Extramural Activity 