Belfast west

Stop PSNI Harassment

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“Stop PSNI harassment of the loyalist community” The PSNI were attacked on Wednesday by youths who blocked Lanark Way (site of this sticker), following a small protest against the NI Protocol. Belfast Live ran a live-blog of the events. Police later suggested that the young people were organised by older people in the community in an attempt to increase tension over the Protocol (Belfast Live) and the threatened collapsing of Stormont by the DUP (BelTel). They were also attacked from the Springfield Road side (BelTel).

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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Where Your Fear Begins

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“My freedom doesn’t end where your fear begins. Brought to you by: The White Rose.” The White Rose was a Munich resistance group that undertook an anti-Nazi leaflet campaign in 1942-1943, until its leaders were arrested and executed (WP). This White Rose is “a global network [using Telegram] of independent activists, all working in unison to disseminate a much needed counter narrative to the relentless fear mongering, lies and propaganda we’ve all been subjected to since day one of the Covid-19 scamdemic.”

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Reject The Crown

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“Commander in chief of British armed forces not welcome in Ireland – Irish blood on Englands’ [sic] hands. Reject the crown in Ireland.” 32CCSM (web) launched a poster campaign to protest the visit by Queen Elizabeth on October 21st to celebrate the centenary of Northern Ireland. She did not end up attending as she was advised to rest (BBC) (and was in fact hospitalised – BBC); Boris Johnson attended (BelTel). The poster includes the Ballymurphy Massacre mural (originally on the Whiterock Rd and later on the Springfield Rd) and the front page of the Daily Mirror after Bloody Sunday in Derry, 1972.

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McKelvey & Steele

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This tarp, above the office of Sınn Féın Poblachtach and the Happy House on the Falls Road, celebrates two previous generations of IRA leadership. Joe McKelvey was commander of the Belfast Brigade of the IRA in the War Of Independence but against the Treaty; he was executed in December, 1922, for occupying the Four Courts in June (WP). Jimmy Steele was a leader in the Belfast IRA from the 1920s to 1960s and the first editor of Republican News; he died shortly after the split (WP).

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Perverting The Course Of Justice

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Here is another set of images concerned with the on-going search for answers related to the death of teenager Noah Donohoe and to the PSNI inquiry into his death. It is now 67 weeks since Noah’s death and a new Facebook page has been set up to campaign for justice, and a petition to demand the resignation of Chief Constable Simon Byrne. These images are from the upper Falls and New Lodge areas of Belfast.

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Defending Freedom From Hate

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Compared to the UVF, the UDA more strongly detect an existential threat to loyalism and evince a siege mentality that provokes the need for armed resistance. Hence the more frequent presence of armed gunmen in UDA murals (which is also due in part to the UVF being able to “re-image” around the Ulster Volunteers and the Somme). With Brexit and the Protocol, however, armed gunmen have recently been appearing more frequently in UVF murals – see, for example, If Our Shores Are Threatened | Bang Up To Date | Our British Identity.

“Springmartin–Highfield–Glencairn Ulster Defence Association est. 1971. Defending freedom from hate.” As the companion mural (We Will Take Nothing Less) makes clear, the hate is coming from a “fascist republican enemy” (“Sinn Fein/IRA”, presumably) and the government of Ireland. Graphically, this mural is the same as the previous one on this wall: Under The Protection Of The UDA.

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Who Should Put Away Their Guns

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Norah McCabe was shot in the back of the head by a plastic bullet fired from an RUC land rover at around 7:45 a.m. on July 9th, 1981, the day after hunger striker Joe McDonnell died. (Danny Barrett would be killed by a British Army sniper in the evening.) The new boards were mounted to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of McCabe’s death. In 1981, a mural was painted at the same spot (in the old Linden Street) to protest the use of plastic bullets: see Plastic Death.

“Norah McCabe, 1947-1981, murdered by an RUC plastic bullet on 9th July 1981, aged 33 years.” With a poem “Peace” by daughter Áıne McCabe, who was three months old when her mother was killed (Irish News).

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We Will Take Nothing Less

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An estimated 100,000 people congregated at Craigavon House on the 23rd of September, 1911, to hear Edward Carson’s inaugural speech as Unionist leader (McNeill Ch. 4). In his speech he said “Our demand is a simple one. We ask for no privileges, but we are determined that no one shall have privileges over us. We ask for no special rights, but we claim the same rights from the same government as every other part of the United Kingdom. We ask for nothing more; we will take nothing less”. Ten years later, in 1921, Northern Ireland was created and it has survived to reach its centenary, despite (according to this mural) “100 years of fighting a fascist republican enemy sponsored by the Irish state.”

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X08391 X08390 This we will always maintain. the ulster people Highcairn Dr