Young Citizen Volunteers/Ulster Volunteer Force/Protestant Action Force mural in Rathcoole.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Rathcoole YCV
Author: Extramural Activity
On Her Their Lives Depend
Women Munition Workers during the First World War are celebrated in this 2011 mural on Inniscarn/Iniscarn Drive in Rathcoole. A ‘Canary Girl’ readies for work as a TNT shell maker. The term stems from the fact that TNT can turn the skin a yellow-orange colour.
The recruitment poster on which the mural is based is shown below. British Pathé has some footage of women working in a munitions factory, presumably in England somewhere. BBC has a page on a massive explosion at the Chilwell (Nottingham) factory. An image of workers amongst shells in 1915 can be seen at http://smnmcshannon.hubpages.com/.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Many Did Not Return
This mural and memorial in Rathcoole commemorates soldiers from the north Belfast area who went to France in 1915 as part of the 15th (North Belfast) Royal Irish Rifles, and in particular the five whose faces appear in the apex of the mural: Magookin, La Harpur, Forrester, Baird and Templeton.
The information board is reproduced below.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Courage And Sacrifice Of The Hunger Strikers
The Clowney Street phoenix, which dates back to 1981 (see The Oldest Murals), has been repainted, and above, the blanketmen painting (see 1981-2011) has been replaced with a montage of photographs from the period, including prisoners on the blanket and dirty protest, the funeral of Sands and of McDonnell, and three pieces of graffiti: “Thirty thousands can’t be wrong” (Sands’s election to Westminster), “Bobby Sands murdered 1.17 am 5th May 1981”, and “My position is in total contrast to that of an ordinary prisoner. I am a political prisoner.”
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Sister Soldiers
Republican mural in Sráıd Na Sceıthe/Hawthorn Street at the junction with Cavendish Street celebrating the lives of Winifred Carney and Nora Connolly. “They stand for the honour of Ireland, As their sisters in days that are gone, And they’ll march with their brothers to freedom, The soldiers of Cumann Na mBan.” Below is a 1965 video of Connolly talking about her life (1893-1981 (WP)) and her father James Connolly, who was executed after the 1916 rising. Carney, who grew up and lived in Belfast, was inside the GPO with Connolly. After the rising, she returned to Belfast, married a Protestant, and continued to advocate socialism (WP).
Previously on Extramural Activity: 1916 Easter Rising Inside the GPO | Outside the GPO
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Thatcher Graffiti
This graffiti at the junction of Hawthorn Street/Sráıd na Sceıthe and Cavendish Road exulting in the death of Margaret Thatcher is just below a board memorialising the three IRA members killed in Gibraltar (one of whom, Dan McCann, lived in the street). (Previously: Ding Dong | Thatcherism | The Real Criminal | Rot In Hell | Rust In Peace)
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01096 gibraltar, vol: mairead farrell sean savage dan mccann executed by the british s.a.s. 6th march 1988; oh! cold march winds that pierce the dark you cry in aged tones for souls of folk you’ve brought to god but still you bear the moans oh! weeping winds this lonely night my mother’s heart is sore lord of all breathe freedom’s breath that she may weep no more! bobby sands
We Only Want The Earth
Irish labour leader James (Jim) Larkin in Donegall Street Place (the entry below the John Hewitt) adorned with an G8 protest placard. Larkin organised strikes in Belfast in 1907 (WP). According to the antig8protest twitter feed, a festival is being put on in Belfast to rival the G8 meeting in Enniskillen (see previously: G8 Cover-Up).
The pose is based on the (unattributed) image shown last, below.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Sold By Stormont
Large éirígí poster on the Falls Road at the top of Iveagh Parade: “Benefit Cuts: Made in Britain, sold by Stormont. Smash Stormont.”
The flyers on the ATM were recorded previously.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Free Stephen Murney
The advertising hoarding at the corner of Divis Street and Northumberland Street continues to provide incongruouscounterpoints to the material below it. Stephen Murney is an éirígí activist currently in prison on terrorism charges (BBC-NI). On the left are the outstretched arms of Jim Larkin, whose statue was featured two days ago.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Ulster Connection
A mural in east Belfast listing local players who have played for Rangers, in Glasgow, Scotland. Featured in the centre is S. English, who scored 72 goals in 81 appearances, including 44 in the 1931-1932 season. Additional player plaques have been added since 2008, as well as the dedication in the lower right corner: “In memory of Moses McNeill, a teenage boy of Ulster-Scots stock & his brothers and friends who in 1872 formed a football team in Glasgow that today is known around the world as the Rangers Football Club “.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01089 we are the people in memory of moses mcneil a teenage boy of ulster-scots stock & his brothers and friends who in 1872 formed a football team in Glasgow that today is known around the world as the rangers football club, 50 title
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 