Extramural Activity

Lives Lost

2023-02-112025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In addition to the repainted mural in Donore Court (featured yesterday in Time For The Truth) a number of information boards have been mounted along the New Lodge Road and on Teach Eithne, presenting photographs and profiles of the six youths who were killed, and a map and description of the events that took place on the night of February 3rd-4th, 1973.

The board concludes, “It is equally true that many others from the neighbouring Unionist and Protestant communities lost their lives during the conflict – these tragedies too bring a painful sense of loss that must be acknowledged. With over 100 lives lost by a combination of loyalist and British State forces – the Greater New Lodge community experience speaks to a story of State execution, collusion and naked sectarian killings over a 35 year period. … The New Lodge community has a narrative that remains to be told – this includes lives lost, imprisonment and discrimination. It is extremely difficult to accurately convey the enormity of the devastation and pain of lives lost in the conflict. … The New Lodge conflict narrative is not of passive victimhood, but of a community who survived the most difficult circumstances and who remain steadfast in their determination to pursue truth and justice for their loved ones.”

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Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Charlie Carson James McCann James Sloan Ambrose Hardy Tony TC Campbell Brendan ‘Fat’ Maguire John Loughran

Time For The Truth

2023-02-102025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A candle-lit vigil (youtube | iTV) took place last Friday (February 3rd) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the “New Lodge Six Massacre”. Shortly before midnight on the night of February 3rd-4th, 1973, Jim Sloan and James McCann were killed by the UDA outside a bar – or so the authorities alleged; the plaque shown below near the spot where they were shot reads “killed by British Forces”; full details of what is currently known about the killings can be found at Paper Trail.

Four more – Tony ‘TC’ Campbell, Ambrose Hardy, Brendan Maguire, John Loughran – were among those who came to the area of the initial shootings and were killed by British Army snipers from their positions on top of the flats, using night-vision sights.

The memorial mural in Donore Court was repainted for the event. From left to right, it shows Hardy, Maguire, Campbell, Loughran, Sloan, and McCann walking down New Lodge Road with (what was) Duncairn Presbyterian and (what was) the RUC station on the Antrim Road behind them. The previous (2011) version of the mural showed a body being carried whereas this new one shows them smiling as they walk, though still in the sights of a sniper’s rifle. Other changes were made: the six portraits in the medallions are now photographs rather than paintings; the background is green rather than pink.

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Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Eat Like A Bird

2023-02-072025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Lahinch street artist SUFEK brings a puffin from the west coast to Derry for the “Roots Street Art” festival (Derry Journal) in 2021.

Previously by SUFEK in Belfast: Beachcombing. Also, a puffin in Larne.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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From The Top Down

2023-02-062025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In a 2020 reflection on the tenth anniversary of the Saville report, Eamonn McCann wrote: “Saville pointed the finger of blame at 10 rank and file soldiers and one allegedly undisciplined officer. The top brass and the politicians were, without exception, given a clean bill of health.” (Hot Press)

On the side wall to the new Bloody Sunday mural in Derry, the chain of command is found guilty war crimes in Northern Ireland on January 30th, 1972 – Bloody Sunday: “Guilty; Heath, Wilford, Ford, Kitson, Loden”. From the top down, the five people mentioned are:

Ted Heath, UK Prime Minister, 1970-1974

Frank Kitson, “counterinsurgency theorist” and commander of troops in Belfast 1970-1972 (History Ireland)

Robert Ford, commander of land forces 1971-1973, who wanted to block the march and make arrests in Creggan, and who wrote a January 7th memo suggesting that gaining control of Derry would require the shooting of “young hooligans” in Derry (The Irish Story).

Derek Wilford, commander of the 1st Parachute regiment on Bloody Sunday, who gave the order for soldiers to make arrests

Ted Loden, commander of ‘Support Company’, the soldiers that went into the Bogside.

The main panel shows General Sir Michael Jackson, second-in-command on Bloody Sunday and who acted as spokesperson for the event and provided the inaccurate account of the killings that was used by the media and the Widgery Report of April 1972 (see An Phoblacht and previously Jail Jackson for his connection to the Ballymurphy Massacre).

Update: By February 14th, the mural had been painted out – see final image, below.

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Copyright © 2023 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
Final image Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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A Citizens’ Assembly

2023-02-042025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Citizens’ Assembly is a group of 99 randomly-chosen Irish citizens, plus a chair, that considers large-scale issues over the course of months. It began in 2016 by taking up the Eighth Amendment on abortion, the “pensions timebomb” fixed-term parliaments, voter turnout and referendums, and climate change – it is not restricted, like its predecessor the Constitutional Convention, to constitutional issues (WP). The 2020-2021 Assembly considered gender equality and biodiversity loss. Sınn Féın called for an Assembly on Irish unity at its November (2022) Ard Fheıs (Irish Examiner | Derry Journal | youtube panel) and Belfast City Council passed an SDLP motion to recommend that the Taoıseach form an Assembly (News Letter); in December, the Dublin City Council approved a measure calling for an Assembly to consider the topic (SF).

“The Irish government should establish a citizens’ assembly on Irish unity/tıonól na saoránach ar aontú na hÉıreann.” Sınn Féın’s preferred outcome of such a process is given at the bottom of the board: “#Time4Unity/Am d’Aontacht”. The images show the board in north Belfast (Limestone Road).

The “Bill Of Shame” (on the left of the wide image) is the legislation to forbid prosecutions for legacy killings.

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Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Cool

2023-02-022025-01-07Extramural Activity2 Comments

The Royal Victoria Hospital was the first public building in the world to have air conditioning, developed by Sirocco Works. Fans drew in outside air and passed it over mats of wetted coir (Cooling Post | images at HEVAC-Heritage). The qualifier “public” is necessary perhaps because Carrier invented the general process for a printing factory in New York (ASME) in 1902 and the New York Stock Exchange installed a system in 1902 (6sqft)

The image above is only one of many panels in College Street Mews by Ed Hicks (ig) on the general theme of Belfast and its industry.

Moss Side Community Hall

2023-01-282025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Moss side” is probably Scots, with “moss” meaning “marsh” or “(peat) bog” (DSL) and this mural is appropriately on Ballybog Road (in Dunmurry), “bog(ach)” in Irish meaning “soft (ground)..

In the mural, “QFB” is Queensway Flute Band – they used to have a mural in Seymour Hill – and “LOL 136” is a lodge in the Derriaghy District (Fb). It’s not clear if there is a specific referent for the dolmen in the centre. The mural is at least 12 years old and it is not clear what functions the hall currently serves; it previously (2017) was home to a men’s shed and in 2018 a Youth Hub opened in the building next to the hall (NIWorld).

With “KAH” graffiti.