No Loitering

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2013-12-17 NArdsPanel1+

Three panels in Newtownards about the Scotch-Irish (or: Ulster Scots) emigration to the United States in the middle of the eighteenth century. Each of the three shows a stage of the experience: ‘Farewell Brothers’ shows family left behind looking out over the sea at the receding ships; ‘The Voyage’ shows sleeping conditions on-board; ‘The Arrival 1731’ shows the flags of the United States and Northern Ireland, with the statue of liberty superimposed upon a red hand.

The three panels are next to a larger, now damaged, board also portraying emigration to the States, shown in the final images below.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Check

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2013-12-28 OppressionDefeated+

Graffiti at the Royal Victoria Hospital on the Falls Road, from December 28th (that is, before the end of the Haass talks without agreement on the final draft), showing three items ticked: The laughter of our children; Oppression defeated; Mandate + ballot box.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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May I Never Hear Such Cries Again!

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2013-11-28 KitchenerStWWI+

These Kilburn Street boards commemorate the “Young Citizen Volunteers Of Ireland” and the battle of the Somme. The text in the side-wall board (shown below) is from the diary of a Somme soldier: “We surge forward. Bayonets sparkle and glint. Cries and curses rent the air. Chums fall, some without a word … and others … Oh, my God! May I never hear such cries again! There goes the YCV flag tied to the muzzle of a rifle. That man had nerve! Through the road just ahead of us we had crossed the sunken road. We could see khaki figures rushing the German front line. The Inniskillings had got at them.”

The larger board, on the right, describes the transition from rebels to British Army soldiers: “On the 17th May 1914 the Young Citizen Volunteers became a battalion of the Belfast regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force. This formed part of the Ulster Division authorised on 28th October 1914 which officially became the 14th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, part of the 109th brigade. The 14th saw action throughout the First World War.”

It includes a quote from Edward Carson, “You will find in your ranks men with the same ideals, men with the same loyalty and the same determination to uphold the rights of their country”, and a quote from VC winner William Fredrick McFadzean, “You people at home make me feel quite proud when you tell me I am the soldier boy of the McFadzeans. I hope to play the game and if I don’t add much lustre to it I certainly will not tarnish it.”

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Black & White

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2013-12-15 Mandela+

Four shots of the “Go safe Mandela – RIP” lettering by Gael Force Art on Slıabh Dubh/Black Mountain two weeks ago, commemorating the death of Nelson Mandela on December 5th, 2013. The one above is on the Springfield Road with ‘The Usual Suspects’ in the foreground. (Previously from the same location: G8 War Criminals.) The second, below, is from the Whiterock Road and involves the ‘IRA Final Salute’ mural.

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Not Child’s Play

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2013-11-23 YCVNoBallGames+

“No ball games” above a YCV mural in Benburb Street in the Village, south Belfast. The Young Citizen Volunteers formed a battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles and so part of the 36th (Ulster) Division during the first world war.

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Forever Brass

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New street art in Garfield Street, in the city centre – black and white cartoon characters with long, thin necks and square faces.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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On The Brink Of Sectarian Disaster

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2013-12-10 ClondaraUpper+

A selection of Republican iconography above the James and Nora Connolly mural in Clondara Street: a tarp to Joe McCann – ‘Soldier of the people, Joe McCann 1947-1972 Official IRA’ (WP) – a board with a Liam McMillen quote – ‘”We stand not on the brink of victory but on the brink of sectarian disaster”, Liam McMillen, Bodenstown June 28th 1973’ (see the post on McMillen at Peter Moloney Collection) – and two circular pieces, one showing the Starry Plough (created in 1914 as the flag of the Irish Citizen Army) and one to co-founder of the ICA ‘James Connolly 1868-1916’ (WP).

These pieces are above the mural to James Connolly and Nora Connolly.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Liberating Minds

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Here is the completed Frederick Douglass mural in Northumberland Street. With quotes from …

  • Douglass himself (“It is easier build strong children than to repair broken adults.”)
  • Abraham Lincoln (“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”)
  • Angela Davis (“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.”)
  • Muhammad Ali (“Why should I drop bombs on brown people in Vietnam while so-called negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs …”)
  • Steven Biko (“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”)
  • MLK (“I have a dream … black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.””)
  • Bob Marley (“Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race.”)
  • Nelson Mandela (“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”)
  • Paul Robeson “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I made made [sic] my choice. I had no alternative”,
    and
  • (without attribution) James Connolly (“The worker is the slave capitalist society, the woman [female worker] is the slave of that slave.”)

Northern Visions TV documentary on the production and launch of the mural.

See also: in-progress shots, in Frederick Douglass.

Update: John Lewis was added in 2014; see As I Would Not Be A Slave.

Update: Aung San Suu Kyi X’ed out in 2017; see The Freedom Of Others.

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Copyright © 2013/2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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thank you sister Rosa Parks Harriet Tubman Barack Obama Betty Sinclair Mary Ann McCracken Aung San Suu Kyi, Haitian Revolution, Chief Joseph, El Salvador, CoMadres

Know Your History

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2011-10-10 CelticBonnar+

“If you know your history …” – a mural sponsored by the Belfast Celtic Society in St. James’s Crescent celebrates some star players – Charlie Tully (WP), Paddy Bonnar, and  Jimmy Jones (WP) – and the old playing ground, Celtic Park or ‘Paradise’, on Donegall Road. Wide shot and close-ups below. (Belfast Telegraph write-up.)

Video from the Belfast Celtic Society of the work in progress and of the unveiling – Jimmy Jones was there in person.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Help For Heroes

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2013-11-25 HelpHeroes+

“Remember the fallen, care for the living”. Five boards arranged into a single piece in Ebor Street, south Belfast. The large bottom panel features a silhouette of a (staged) photograph taken in Basra (DailyMail) of a soldier on a stretcher giving the ‘thumbs up’ sign.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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