These two pieces of anti-PSNI graffiti are in Glenvale Street, PUL west Belfast: “PSNI no-go zone – enter at your own risk” and “Providing Support [for] Nationalist Interests”.
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Copyright © 2005 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is an in-progress set of images of the original “Wheatfield Project” panels on the Ballysillan Road, depicting the 20th century in loyalism. The crown on the YCV symbol and the tombstones and Ulster tower have not been finished and Carson’s statue will be added to the foreground of Stormont.
Later on, an info board would replace the first two panels, and the order after it would be Ulster Day, then Carson signing the covenant, then a new double-sized panel of Fernhill House, and then the rest as above, but with the order of the Sunningdale and UWC strike panels reversed.
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Copyright © 2005 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is the scene on the Shore Road (north Belfast) at Gray’s Lane. From left to right, “[Tony] Blair/Haine [Peter Hain, NI Secretary] – 2 S/F Toadies”; “And so the sham goes on”; “Johnny Adair – South East Antrim UFF – No Surrender”; and below, the remains of the Tudor Lodge (still present in 2017).
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Copyright © 2005 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is a photograph of the outer fences of “you know where” – Long Kesh/the H Blocks/Her Majesty’s Prison Maze.
Whatever you say, say nothing
When you talk about you-know-what.
For if you-know-who could hear you
You know what you’d get –
They’d take you off to you-know-where
– Colum Sands “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing”
Colum Sands’s song (1981) is pre-dated by Seamus Heaney’s 1975 poem of the same name, from the collection North.
“This morning from a dewy motorway
I saw the new camp for the internees …”
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Copyright © 2005 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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King William’s True Blues flute band from Eden Village (outside Carrickfergus) amalgamated with the South East Antrim Defenders. That group disbanded in 2007 but was re-established in 2010.
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Copyright © 2004 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is the scene as Glenbryn Park was being rebuilt. The “peace” line separates Protestant Glenbryn from Catholic Ardoyne. “Build My Gallows” is a Rangers football song, but the last line here is “Build my gallows, build them high … for I’m not in Eire”.
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Copyright © 2004 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is the scene in Ardoyne Avenue, looking west towards Berwick Avenue (with the Birth Of The Irish Republic mural PMC | Extramural) and Divis mountain. In the middle ground, Sınn Féın urge people to get on the electoral rolls: “British government guilty of electoral fraud. 211,000 denied their vote [see also in Linden St]. Are you one of them? An bhfuıl tusa ına measc? Register now. Cláraıgh anoıs. Sınn Féın.”
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Copyright © 2004 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Faugh-a-ballagh” (from the Irish “Fág an bhealach”, “clear the way”) is the regimental motto of the Royal Irish Regiment. It is said to date back to 1811, when it was used by ensign Edward Keogh of the 87th Prince Of Wales’s Irish regiment. See also: Colonel Tim Collins, commander of the first battalion, who made a famous speech on the eve of the Iraq invasion | Talavera 1809.
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Copyright © 2004 Extramural Activity
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“Who burnt us out? People before profit.” “Fat cats get fatter – puts the kittens out in the cold.” “They burnt us out – don’t let them get away with it.”
On April 17th, 2004, incendiary devices went off at multiple points inside the 1936 Art Deco-style North Street Arcade (BelTel) and more than 20 businesses, including Good Vibrations record store, were burnt out. Suspects were interviewed (Guardian) but no charges were ever brought.
The third image is from October: new shutters have been graffitied with “New shutters wont hide the fact that you burnt out twenty businesses – shame on you.” Google Street View from 2008 shows graffiti reading, “Make my Christmas – jail the arsonists. Shame on you” with an anarchist symbol. In 2010, KVLR, DOC, and Filth sprayed the shutters (web). In 2012, ARNZ (of TMN) wrote on the shutters (Street View).
On the shutters blocking the arcade itself, KVLR and Friz (of SPOOM) jointly painted a piece for the 2011 Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and repainted it in 2012, again for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. (See Visual History 11.)
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This two-panel mural on the International Wall on Divis Street protests the US occupation of Iraq.
On the left, George W. Bush sucks down Iraqi oil (and black bubbles with dollar-signs come out of his ears). On the right, Iraq lies in rubble and bones, conquered by a tattered US flag. (According to the artists – see final image – the frame on the right reproduces/is based on a magazine cover during the Viet Nam war.) The “British Support Hook” is has been added in the strip in the middle between the main panels.
Originally, the given reason for “Operation Iraqi Freedom” (not “liberation” as that would have yielded “OIL”) was the hunt for “weapons of mass destruction” but that search was suspended in January.
The mural to the left is Cherish The Children; to the right is Castilla Nacion.
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Copyright © 2004 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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george w bush rockets red glare gave proof through the air that our flag was still there basra Bhaghdad Baghdad
Extramural Activity 