Belfast west

If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be In Your Revolution

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Communism and the Connolly Youth Movement (web | Fb) compete with a Menagerie (front | side | car-park) flyer for the for the attention of young people in Divis Street, Belfast.

In her autobiography, Living My Life, Emma Goldman wrote, “At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face … he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause. I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. … I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. … If it meant that, I did not want it.” (p. 56)

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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An Unrepentant Republican

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Continuity IRA or Irish Republican National Congress (IRNC – see Join The IRNC and Maid Of Erin) member Niall Lehd was initially arrested on explosives charges in 2014 (BBC-NI) and given early release in 2016 (An Phoblacht) but returned to jail a year ago, in March of 2018 (Irish News). In December he was charged on several counts relating to terrorism and explosives (Belfast Live). Lehd professes his innocence and says his license was revoked simply because he is “an unrepentant republican” (Free Niall Lehd campaign). His cause has been added to the IRPC (Irish Republican Prisoners Committee | Fb) board on Northumberland Street.

See previously: a White Line Picket in support of Lehd.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Brian Stewart

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13 year-old Brian Stewart died on October 10th, 1976 – 42 years ago today – six days after being hit by a plastic bullet fired by the King’s Own Scottish Borders near his Turf Lodge Home. He was buried three days later, on October 13th – what would have been his fourteenth birthday. (For the long search for justice, see sister Marie Stewart | sceptic peg | saoirse32).

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Mar Uachtarán

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Voters in the Irish Republic go to the polls today (October 26th, 2018) to elect a president. Northerners cannot vote, though a referendum to allow residents of Northern Ireland to vote in presidential elections is expected in 2019 (BelTel). Nonetheless, these posters for Sinn Féın candidate Lıadh Ní Rıada are at the Glen Road/Falls Road roundabout in west Belfast.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Pain Is Real

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“… but so is hope.” World Mental Health Day was October 10th, and in support of the cause and their “elephant in the room” report (with Belfast Youth Forum and Children’s Law Centre), the Northern Ireland Youth Forum (Fb), with the support of Peace IV funding, produced this mural on Northumberland Street, just above the security gates.

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Community Activist Extraordinaire

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John Leathem, chairman of the Divis Tower Falls Residents’ Association, died in his flat on the 19th floor of Divis Tower in August last year (2017), after returning to the Tower four years previously when he was diagnosed with cancer (Irish News | Tele). He was described by Sınn Féın MLA Fra McCann as “a champion for the people of no property” (An Phoblacht). This new mural is outside his former office on the first floor.

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Belfast Taxis Community Interest Company

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“Serving the community for over fifty years.” BTCIC is the current name for what was previously the West Belfast Taxi Association. Black taxis have been running up and down the Falls since 1970, providing an alternative form of transportation to local people during the Troubles when buses were cancelled or, as in this picture, burnt out and used as barricades. They now, in addition, provide tours of the murals (such as the Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street) and Belfast city. Taxi Trax has a web site but here provides a phone number for those already at the International Wall, where there has been a black taxi mural since 2003. There are other WBTA murals in Beechmount and Ardoyne. The painters have signed the mural: Doherty’s Coal Merchant and Lyons Tea.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Decolonisation

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“In memory of our fallen INLA volunteers, upper Springfield area: Hugh Ferguson, Ronnie Bunting, Noel Little, Hugh O’Neill, Micky Kearney, John McColgan, Paddy “Paddybo” Campbell. Comrades: Barry “Baz” McMullan, Sean “Shanto” fleming, Harry O’Hara, Paul Collins, Bernado Brownlee, Emmanuel Kelly, Michael Conlon, Billy Lynch, James “Harpo” Murray, John Kennaway. Saoırse go deo [freedom forever].” Ferguson was the first member of the INLA to die, in 1975 in the feud with the OIRA. Bunting and Little/Lyttle (both Protestants) were shot dead in 1980 in Bunting’s Andersonstown home by masked gunmen from the UDA or SAS with RUC complicity.

Whiterock Road, Belfast, next to the Kevin Lynch – Marian Price – Kevin Lynch wall.

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Is Deontóır Mé/Yes, I Donate

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500 people took part in the 10K Na Ceathrún Gaeltachta/Gaeltacht Quarter 10K last Sunday to raise awareness for organ donation. Youngster Dáıthí Mac Gabhann (Donate4Daithí Fb) has become the face of the Irish-language campaign; his Facebook site has a gallery of 300+ images from the race. The mural above is on the Whiterock Road. You can register as a donor with the NHS.

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