Two views of an IRPWA banner where Divis Street intersects with the motorway. It proclaims “Political dissent is not a crime – End internment now.”
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03503 X03458 divis st
Temporary Footway
Belfast west
Mussen Cortège
“Richard Mussen joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (27th foot) at the age of 15. At the outbreak of the Zulu wars he volunteered for active service and was transferred to the Second Battalion The South Wales Borderers (24th foot). At the outbreak of the Great War he joined the 9th Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles and with him went his 4 sons and 2 sons-in-law. His son Richard (junior) was killed at the Somme on Thursday 21st March, 1918 and is remembered at Pozieres Memorial. Richard Mussen was buried from 22 Dundee Street [which was just above Agnes Street] on 29/12/1936 and was accorded full Military Honours. He was laid to rest in Belfast City Cemetery.” (From the plaque shown in image #3, below.)
Here is a short NVTv documentary about Mussen, including (at 12m25s) the image on which the mural shown here is based. The mural was done with spray paint by artist Sam Bates a.k.a. SMUG. It was unveiled on June 24th, 2011.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03450 X03449 X03447 [X03448] X03351 beresford st
Four-Letter Words
Three more images from the recent electoral season. Political parties were putting up hoardings and posters everywhere, such as Sınn Féın’s “Vote” ad (next to one for the rock-band Busted on their ‘Pigs Can Fly’ tour) and the DUP’s use of the spectre of a nationalist first minister as a reason to “keep” Arlene Foster and colleagues. Above, however, the watch-word is “stop”: “Want change? Stop vot[i]ng”.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03442 X03441 X03440 railway br nothumberland st ? keep arlene f1rst minister vote for her DUP candidates it takes a4-letter word to be heard níos fear better with 5 point pledge
Pick And Mix
Voters went to the polls today in elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly. The ‘People Before’ candidate (and a current Belfast city councillor), Gerry Carroll, hopes to pick up some transfers from strategic voters on the Shankill.
Also from the current election season: Slippery Road.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03809 ulster unionist progressive unionist hutchinson nesbitt your choice your first minister
Somme Sport-Wear
The Northern Ireland football team will be taking part in Euro 2016, which runs from June 10th to July 10th and so includes the centenary of the Battle Of The Somme on July 1st. You can pick up shirts for both events in this Shankill Road store.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03436
Hold Your Head Up High
On April 15th, 1989, 96 Liverpool football fans were crushed to death against steel fencing around the pitch at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield. On Tuesday (April 26th), an inquest found the police “grossly negligent” and that the fans were “unlawfully killed”. It also refuted allegations that fans had entered the ground illegally, and were drunk and unruly, and a variety of other claims made in The Sun and The Times about bad behaviour during the event. (Guardian | WP)
According to the Irish News, the simple tribute on Black Mountain of the number 96 is a collaboration by West Against Racism Network (WARN) and the West Belfast Liverpool Supporters Club. The materials were borrowed from Gael Force Art.
See also the Slıabh Dubh Visual History page.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03417
I Could Hardly Wait To Keep Our Date
Two competing posters for two competing dates for two (competing?) Easter Rising parades: the People’s Parade (above) was held today, April 24th, the date of the Rising in 1916; the other was held on this year’s Easter Sunday, March 27th, as the parade is annually held on Easter Sunday.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03384 X03385 beechmount ave glen rd easter parade 1916 2016 assemble divis tower 11.30 am parade leaves 12.00 pm sharp speaker gerry adams TD honour ireland’s patriot dead wear an easter lily cumann uaigheann na laochra gael national graves assocition easter commemoration committee belfast leaving barrack street for milltown at 12 noon
End Torture
Two Beechmount murals today on the same theme: republican prisoners of war in Maghaberry and Hydebank (site of prisons for women and for young offenders).
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03410 X03405 beechmount ave irish republican prisoners welfare association join RNU smash stormont cogus british
1916-2016
“Republican Socialist movement — IRSP INLA — remembers and salutes all those who gave their lives and liberty in the struggle for national liberation and socialism in Ireland.”
The Easter Lily on a red, five-pointed, star ties together the centenary of the Easter Rising with republican socialism. This is another IRSP/INLA stencilled mural commemorating the centenary of the Rising. A very similar piece appears in Divis— see National Liberation And Socialism; this one is in Beechmount.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03406 X03407 X03408 X03409 beechmount ave movement IRSP INLA national liberation army starry plough remembers and salutes all those who gave their lives and liberty in the struggle for liberation and socialism in ireland
Slippery Road
Vote with caution, regardless of party! Sınn Féın and People Before Profit posters for NI Assembly elections which take place on May 5th.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03382 falls rd
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 