Belfast north

Sean McCaughey

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“I ndıl gcuımhne oglach [sic] Sean McCaughey, Gaelgoır [sic] agus muınteıor [sic] [Irish-speaker and teacher]. Fuaır sé bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann.” “Formerly of Duneden Park, Ardoyne. Died on hunger and thirst strike after 23 days in Portlaoise gaol on May 11th 1946.” “For those who believe no explanation is necessary; for those who don’t believe no explanation is possible.”

McCaughey was convicted of kidnapping and torturing IRA chief of staff Sean Hayes, who was suspected of treason. His hunger and thirst strike was preceded by five years on the blanket.

“NBCS” = North Belfast Cultural Society.

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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00247

Remember The Hunger Strike

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2006 was the 25th anniversary of the second hunger strike, in 1981. This Ardoyne commemorative piece combines a painted border of Celtic knotwork with boards depicting scenes from 1981: a funeral volley, Derry women in blankets, women banging binlids, a masked protester throwing a Molotov cocktail at an armoured jeep, marchers outside a polling station.

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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00244

Ard Eoın Kickhams

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The close-up shows three generations of toddler hurlers, from barefoot and cloth-cap to boots and braces to baseball cap and tracksuit. Kickhams is the local Cumann Luthchleas Gael (GAA club) (Fb | tw), founded 1907, named for republican writer Charles Kickham. The mural shows football, hurling, and handball.

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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Same Story, Same Bigotry

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Londoner Stephen Lawrence was murdered by stabbing in 1993 and, although arrests were made, no charges were brought. A 1998 public inquiry found that the Metropolitan Police Service was “institutionally racist”. In 2012, two of the original suspects were found guilty of the murder (WP). Catholic Robert Hamill was beaten to death by loyalists in Portadown in 1997 while police in an RUC land-rover looked on (WP).

Brompton Park, Ardoyne, north Belfast. The same board (in slightly different colours) appeared in Artana Street, south Belfast.

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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00243 

Young Guns

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Sixteen year-old Glen “Spacer” Branagh was killed by a premature blast bomb during a riot on Remembrance Sunday, 2001. His portrait is on a board at the centre of UDA flags and guns (and the tigers of Tiger’s Bay (which would make it “Tigers’ Bay”).

“If the Provos and the pan nationalist front and the British and Irish governments keep trying to succeed in a united Ireland then they may prepare themselves for another 30 bloody years for the battle will have just begun.”

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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00280 Edlingham Street

One Big Union

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The red hand of Ulster serves as the emblem of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union, founded by Jim Larkin in 1909. It was led by James Connolly from 1914 to 1916. Winifred Carney, from Bangor, founded the Irish Textile Workers’ Union in Belfast in 1912 and was personal secretary to Connolly. A border of rope frames the main image of carters working on the docks, above.

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Copyright © 2007 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00162

20th Century Northern Ireland

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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.

Ballysillan Road, north Belfast

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Copyright © 2005 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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