UDA/UFF/UYM (Ulster Young Militants) board in Grange Drive, Ballyclare, with red hand and red fist.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01818 quis separabit terrae filius feriens tego
Young Guns
Death Driving
Poster from the junction of Whiterock and Springfield Roads: “It’s not joyriding, it’s murder. Debbie McComb Aged 15 Killed by car thieves, March 1, 2002.” McComb died of her injuries after being hit by Henry Marley, who was driving a stolen car and drove through a red light. Her death and other deaths led to a substantial campaign against “death drivers” in 2002 (see, for example, An Phoblacht | The (Sunday) People). Marley was sentenced in April of this year for colliding into two other cars (Newsletter).
Previously: A Philosophy Of Liberation (lower Falls joyriding)
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Their Name Liveth For Evermore
Four generations of headgear and rifles, from 1912 to the present, are featured in this new UVF board in Glenwood Street. A portion of the previous No. 4 Platoon ‘graveyard scene’ mural it replaces can be seen in the top right, with black figures superimposed. The title of the post, which comes from Ecclesiasticus 44, appears on the accompanying info panel along with a verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen. The fourth verse of Binyon’s poem is more often quoted, as in What Do We Forget When We Remember and At The Going Down Of The Sun.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01860 X01859 for god and ulster dedicated to the memory of fall officers NCOs volunteers number 4 platoon a company 1st belfast battalion ulster volunteer force names and deeds are eternally venerated by their comrades in arms who continue to serve humbly in their honour they went with songs to battle they were young straight of limb true of eyes steady and aglow they remained staunch to the end against odds uncounted they fell with their faces to the foe their name liveth for
Together We Stand Alone
UVF/YCV mural in Ballyclare celebrating and commemorating soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI and in particular at the Somme. The central panel, shown above, shows soldiers bearing the Division’s standard (painted in colour in an otherwise black-and-white mural and in the style of the (US) Marines ‘Iwo Jima’ Memorial (WP)) which comprises the Union flag, harp insignia of the Royal Irish Rifles, and the red hand of Ulster on a field of shamrocks.
The other panels, shown in the full shot, below, show (clockwise from top left) uniforms of the Ulster Volunteers, a Protestant woman defending the fields (see Deserted! Well, I Can Stand Alone), soldiers going over the top, and soldiers bowed at a UVF memorial.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01830 X01831 we band of brothers Henry V shakespeare
Culture Before Cash
Materials intended for an Eleventh Night bonfire in Rathcoole were set alight early on Tuesday morning (0200 May 13th, 2014, according to Proud To Be A Protestant – Banter) and still smoldered in the morning. Nolan’s radio show last week had a segment on this bonfire, following up on an Irish News report (article behind a paywall) that the bonfire might be moved or covered for the Giro d’Italia. “Culture before cash” means that locals would prefer bonfires to the funds available (here is the Belfast City Council ‘Bonfire Management’ page; Rathcoole is in Newtownabbey) to put on a street party with a willow-wood beacon in its place. According to this Irish News report, in 2013 45 Loyalist and 12 Republican bonfires part of the scheme. Here is the DOE’s Bonfire Report (pdf).
Previously: Bonfire Flags (images of (nearly) finished bonfires) | Everyone Has The Right To Participate (pallets in the lower Shankill estate)
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01874
Free For All
Above is Friz’s 2012 B-movie mash-up on the side of Ryan’s Bar on the Lisburn Road: A fire-breathing Godzilla, a masked wrestler (from “Lucha Libre” – Mexican “free[style] wrestling”) about to hurl down an electrical cloud, an octopedal brain with bow-tie, a giant robot smashing buildings, the mad scientist and the damsel in distress. Close-ups of the robot and Godzilla’s fire, below.
Previously from Friz: Chips & A Movie (Atomic Collectables) | Fox & Bird (Culture Night 2013) | The Girl With The Flaxen Hair | Working On A Building
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01824 X01823 X01822 luchador
As I Would Not Be A Slave, So I Would Not Be A Master
U.S. civil rights protester John Lewis (WP) – leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and co-organizer of the march on Washington in August, 1963 – made a visit to Dublin, Derry, and Belfast at the end of April (Newsletter | DerryCity.gov.uk). In honour of his visit, the ‘We Can Do It!” (a.k.a. “Rosie The Riveter”) figure at the left edge of the Douglass mural (under Barack Obama) on Northumberland Street was painted over and Lewis’s image – wearing the Presidential Medal Of Freedom – put in its place. For a wide-shot of the mural pre-Lewis, see Liberating Minds, which gives all of the quotes in the mural, including the quote from Abraham Lincoln that provides the title of today’s post.
Previously: Frederick Douglass (2009) | The Only Tired I Was, Was Tired Of Giving In (Rosa Parks) | Prison First, Then President (Nelson Mandela)
Bill Rolston gives some historical context in this video on the Open Hands project.
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Copyright © 2014/2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01825 X01829 X02312 martin luther king bob marley steven biko haitian revolution angela davis muhammad ali abraham lincoln strong children the woman is the slave of that slave swing low sweet chariot why should i drop bombs on brown people in vietnam cast off one’s chains the freedom of others without regard to race i have a dream thank god almighty we are free at last liberating minds society apartheid thank you sister rosa
Romanian Housebreakers Beware
Graffiti in The Village area (south Belfast). The precise reason for the graffiti is unknown (leave a comment/e-mail if you know). Romanians were in the first wave of European immigration to Northern Ireland and came under attack especially in 2009. More recently, a Romanian had faeces thrown at him last week (BelTel) and attacks against immigrants, Poles in particular, have been on the rise in recent months. The latest is this attack (Tele) on a family in Templemore Avenue and an attack by a gang of fifteen people (Guardian). Last week saw “Locals only/Get out!” graffiti in east Belfast (U.tv – includes video| The Journal) and south Belfast (NewsLetter). Last year, “No blacks” graffiti was directed at two Nigerians, also in east Belfast (BBC). The Polish envoy has expressed his concerns to the PSNI (Guardian | IrishNews).
Previously: Never Actually Existed
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Mountain Stage
The Giro d’Italia (Tour Of Italy) got off to a rainy start in Belfast yesterday (Friday May 9th, 2014) with a team time-trial. While there was talk in February of removing not just election posters (BBC) but also flags and murals (BBC), and the tourist board and Department of Enterprise hopes that spectacular scenes (through the rain) from the north Antrim coast will recoup the cost of hosting the event (4.2M in total), republicans took to the slopes of Slıabh Dubh to greet Italian visitors and perhaps viewers with “Fine Dominio Britannico” (“End British Rule”), and loyalists held what the Tele describes as a “protest march”, setting off this morning at the same time as the second stage – around the Antrim coast – got under way (Parades Commission on the Ligoniel Combine).
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01865 black mountain cycling
Purity In Our Hearts
“Purity in our hearts, strength in our arms, truth in our lips.” Easter Saturday (April 19th) saw the launch of a new RNU tribute to four teenaged members of Na Fıanna Éıreann who died in 1972: Davy McAuley, Josh Campbell, Josie McComiskey and Bernard Fox – all four from Ardoyne/Ard Eoın.
Dates of death are given on the plaque, below. McAuley died of a gunshot wound, perhaps at a Louth training camp (Nelson McCausland). Campbell was shot in Eksdale Street in a gun battle with the British Army; McComiskey was shot in Flax Street in a gun battle with the British Army; Fox was shot by British Army in Brompton Street.
The third image is a wide shot showing the piece and a new memorial garden.
The work is unveiled at the beginning of this video of the event.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01807 X01808 X01809 X02083 1909-2009 100 year of resistance you may kill the revolutionary but never the revolution network unity honour ardoyne’s fallen fıanna all of whom lived in ardoyne and died tragically on active service in 1972 Truth on our lips
Extramural Activity 