“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.
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).
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.
“Rotten And Corrupt: Christopher Little (39) entered guilty pleas to nine charges at Belfast Crown Court last month – including attempting to have sex with a child. [Irish Times] 20 officers shared racist, sexist and misogynistic messages including texts and images which mocked Arabic and Islamic people. [Spotlight programme] Six PSNI officers all had hearings for an array of alleged offences. PSNI revealed they themselves had dismissed 11 police officers amid claims of over 130 misconduct cases throughout the force. [Belfast Live]”
It’s not clear who is behind these flyers in north Belfast; the harpist on the electical box is by Kerrie Hanna (ig).
New Lodge Road, Belfast.
Update: the posters have been removed (by the end of July, 2023).
CNR west Belfast, but not that rising. Rather these two placards on the Falls Road encourage reactions to risings of the Christian kind – we should “repent” our sins even as they forgiven; the shroud of Turin dates to roughly 1300 but is a symbol of Jesus of Nazareth in the tomb between crucifixion and resurrection – and of the inflationary kind – Lasaır Dhearg (web) declares “Costs are rising. And so must we!”
There are dozens of Easter Rising commemorations happening this weekend – see Belfast Media for a full calendar. Above is a board for Saoradh’s (web) Easter parade on Saturday 8th. Below is the Falls/D Company gathering.
“National Republican Commemoration Committee Easter commemoration. Unfinished revolution. 2.30 pm Saturday 8th April. International wall, Divis Street, Belfast. Bands in attendance. Honour Ireland’s patriot dead, wear your Easter lily with pride.”
Norah McCabe died on July 9th, 1981, a day after being struck in the back of the head by a plastic bullet. The RUC claimed that they fired at a petrol bomber but footage from a Canadian TV crew on the Falls Road showed this to be false (Belfast Media).
Her husband Jim was involved in the “United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets” (web) founded in 1985 by Groves & Reilly. He died in January (2023) (and mural in his memory was added to Divis Street – see Jim McCabe).
There is a plaque and a memorial to McCabe at the spot where she was struck in the old Linden Street. These posters are at the family home on the Springfield Road.
The gates on Lanark Way are part of the west Belfast “peace” wall. On this site we always put the word in scare-quotes to signify that it has a different meaning than it typically does. Without them, “peace wall” might suggest a place where people can go for a few moments of quiet reflection.
Rather, the wall – and the gates and the cages that surround many buildings on either side of the wall (see above) – is a divider meant to keep the peace by separating warring factions. Indeed the reason for the re-painting of the gates is not just the up-coming 25th anniversary of the Belfast or “Good Friday” Agreement (on April 10th) but the fact that they were damaged in the 2021 rioting (BBC). (This Irish News article surveys 150 years of violence at the site.)
The new art on the gates is inspired by the cover of the booklet sent to every household in advance of the May vote to ratify the Agreement (available at CAIN), which was similar in various ways to the television ad shown at the time (Ads On The Frontline). It showed a family of four in silhouette against a red-and-orange sunset; given the rioting associated with Lanark Way, on the gates this sunset could be mistaken for flames, and the rejoicing silhouetted figures for gesticulating and petrol-bomb-throwing rioters. For the previous art on the gates, see the Visual History page on the west Belfast “peace” line. (For the mural in the background, see Sailortown Dockers.)
“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.
“CR Gas & The Burning Of Long Kesh, 15th-16th October, 1974 in Long Kesh. Operation Pagoda – the British government authorised and sanctioned the use of a chemical weapon against Irish Republican prisoners. Members of the 22nd S.A.S. carried out the attack from a helicopter.”
Operation Pagoda was the name of the SAS’s counter-terrorism programme (WP). Its role in the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’ in October 1974 and its alleged use of CR (dibenzoxazepine) powder – the successor to CS powder (and before that, CN or “tear” gas) (New Scientist) – remains a classified matter. CR had been authorised for use in 1973 (Guardian).
