INLA member Mickey Devine was the tenth and final hunger-striker to die in 1981, on August 20th. The mural above, in the familiar style of the IRSP/INLA (see Patsy O’Hara | IRSP), is in Chemical Street, in the Short Strand, across from the set of five murals on Mountpottinger Road – see the wide shot below.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
[X01506] X01507 X01508 irish national liberation republican socialist sands hughes mccreesh mcdonnell hurson lynch doherty mcelwee
A message from “E.B. [east Belfast] Loyalists” in Castlereagh Parade, combining two speeches of Winston Churchill’s: “We have nothing to offer but blood, tears, and sweat” and “Whatever the cost maybe, we shall fight on the beach’es [sic], we shall fight in the fields and on the street’s [sic]. We shall never surrender.”
1940-05-13: “I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined the government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask: What is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us, to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.”
1940-06-04: “We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. “
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01520
Mural in Newtownards to the Ulster Volunteer Force and Young Citizen Volunteers of the first world war shows two soldiers bent in reflection against an orange and red background, suggesting sunrise/sunset. “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”
Close-ups of the wall to the left (featuring lines from Binyon’s For The Fallen) and the plaque in the middle can be found below.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01496 X01495 X01494 [X01603] north down brigade, somme ypres arras thiepval st. quentin fricourt grandcourt messines william hannagan, william lightbody, stephen campbell, stuart allan, keith mckinstry, eddie moreland, michael mckeague, thomas o’brien, jim moore, david stirling lest we forget for god and ulster
This piece – a small figure in white made grotesque by a gas mask, with the This Means Nothing hand in the background – is in North Street, originally next to Praise’s ‘Dot‘ (and the ‘Get Paid’ crosses, which are still on the electrical box) from Culture Night 2012, and now between DMC’s Long Runs The Fox and Visual Waste’s ‘bird snatching boy’ (Carried Away).
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01502
A tattered Union flag on a gable wall at the end of Richview Street, south Belfast.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01483
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
X01488 X01489 X01490 X01491 X02975 X01486 muraltec n.i. commonwealth of kentucky united we stand divided we fall
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
X01523
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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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01471 X05300
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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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01481 X01589 X01525 X01590 dorothy maguire corner ira vol. bobby sands mp fermanagh south tyrone
“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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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01463
Extramural Activity 