“Joseph Plunkett & Grace Gifford – their final embrace & farewell.” May 4th is the anniversary of the execution of Joseph Plunkett, one of the planners of the Easter Rising in 1916. Seven hours before he faced the firing squad, he married Grace Gifford. The photograph is from a re-enactment for a 1966 RTÉ programme Insurrection (RTÉ). The ballad Grace, written by Seán and Frank O’Meara in 1985, is now internationally known (here is Jim McCann’s 1985 performance).
This is one of various recent additions to the many memorials in Ard An Lao, Béal Feırste/Ardilea, Belfast. This replaces the board seen in Continuing Their Legacy.
This is Wee Nuls’s (web | ig) street art celebrating the success of the ‘menstruation matters’ (ig) campaign for free period products and the passage of the Period Products Bill.
“Brits out” and “Wear an Easter lily”. The CNR population in Glengormley has been increasing, especially to the west (home of Naomh Éanna CLG in Hightown) and south (see Fáılte Go Dtí Glengormley and, on the same Elmfield wall as shown below, INLA/Stop Internment) – Belfast North, which includes Glengormley, returned a nationalist (Sinn Féın’s John Finucane) for the first time in the 2019 general election. The broader Newtownabbey area is still predominantly Protestant, however, and there is an Orange arch right in the middle of Glengormley each year.
After the May, 2022, elections that resulted in Sınn Féın being the largest party, the Assembly met twice but on both occasions the DUP refused to participate in a vote for speaker after which Stormont could not function. The DUP explained its boycott of the Assembly as a form of protest at the NI Protocol and voted against the “Windsor Framework” intended to resolve those problems (Sky News). Various deadlines have passed, a pay-cut is threatened (Belfast Live), but, as it stands currently, there will not be a new Assembly election under January, 2024 (Guardian | BBC).
A Belfast Live poll three weeks ago found that 75% of respondents thought the rules should be changed to allow Stormont to be restored without DUP co-operation.
“Some believe it is only high walls that can hold fear in check but that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love – Gandalf and me [called_to_create_ (ig)].” The quote is from the movie of ‘The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey’ (youtube) and not any Tolkein book. Whatever the truth of the quotation, residents generally want the so-called “peace” walls to remain: 2023 BelTel (about Derry) | 2019 Irish Times | 2015 BBC.
There has been graffiti art of the side wall of what was Vogue Hair & Beauty and is currently the Kurdish barbers since 2008 (see Visual History 11) but in 2018 the wall was claimed by Saoradh (web) with a mural depicting the Palestinian flag (see From The River To The Sea – it has recently been repainted) and a changing message to the right-hand side – currently a pair of IRPWA “No extradition’ boards.
On the heels of the RNU’s use of the Proclamation’s “cherish all the children of the nation equally” (Who Is The Terrorist?) here is a use by anti-abortion party Aontú (web), which separates them from the other nationalist parties: “London–SF–SDLP impose abortion. They said to cherish all the children equally. Get active … join us. Aontú – life, unity, economic justice.”
Queen’s University’s “Agreement 25” conference wrapped up yesterday with speeches from Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton, Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, Joe Kennedy III, Leo Varadkar, and Rishi Sunak. The anniversary is commemorated slightly differently on Free Derry Corner: “GFA25 – partition is injustice. ‘In the ashes of our broken dreams we’ve lost sight of our goal’, the republic!”
The quotation is from Liam Weldon’s song ‘Dark Horse On The Wind’ (youtube).
“The Civil Rights 50th Anniversary Committee pay homage to all the courageous people who participated in the Civil Rights campaign” with a commemorative board in the alley of Donegall Street Place, in front of the Jim Larkin statue and ICTU mural. The photograph shows the start of the march from Coalisland to Dungannon on March 24th, 1968. The participants are identified on the CAIN page about NICRA. (See also the remarks from vice-chair Dympna McGlade at Slugger.)
“We shall overcome – the history of the struggle for civil rights in Northern Ireland 1968-1978. During the 1960’s, a diverse group of people and organisations with differing political aims, ideologies, cultural backgrounds, and religious beliefs came together to forge a unity based on a growing awareness of the need for an effective, non-violent vehicle for political and legislative reform. This led to the formation of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). Original, inventive and radical in a stagnant political system, NICRA avalanched its way through Northern Ireland politics using the following aims: defend the basic freedoms of all citizens; protect the rights of the individual; highlight all possible abuses of power; demand guarantees for freedom of speech, assembly and association; inform the public of their lawful rights. Through activism, marches and peaceful disobedience, the NICRA demands were addressed to varying degrees and paved the way for major legislative, political and social reform in Northern Ireland. These demands included: ‘one man, one vote’; an end to gerrymandering of electoral wards; the prevention of discrimination in the allocation of government jobs and council housing; the removal of the Special Powers Act and the Disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary (The B Specials).”
“I’m a child. They have the guns. Who is the terrorists? ‘Cherish all the children of our nation equally’? ” The quote is from the 1916 Proclamation (CAIN); it has been used inclusively for various classes (see Cherish | The Children Of The Nation) but here is applied to children.
Anti-Agreement republicans have complained about being searched in the streets and in their homes, sometimes in front of children. (There is a Facebook group on the issue.)
RNU (ig | Fb) board in Divis Street, west Belfast.
Extramural Activity 