Belfast

Where Did The Seeds Fall?

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03741 2016-08-09 IntWall2016 Kilmainham+

This part of the new mural on the International Wall uses the area of Kilmainham jail where most of the leaders of the Easter Rising were executed in order to tie together the blanket protest – Kieran Nugent and Maıréad Farrell are shown with raised fists –  the hunger strikers – including Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan on the ground – and Roger Casement, walking towards the gallows. Casement was executed not in Kilmainham but in Pentonville Prison, England, convicted of treason for his attempts to secure German rifles and machine-guns for the Rising.

Between Bobby Sands and Mickey Devine in the lower centre of the image is a 200th-anniversary stone in Maynooth/Maıgh Nuad(h) of the 1798 rising. A photograph of the stone is available here. “The Tree Of Liberty: What is that in your hand? It is a branch. Of what? Of the tree of liberty. Where did it first grow? In America. Where does it bloom? In France. Where did the seeds fall? In Ireland.”

At the launch (on August 3rd) actor James Doran (see the final image, below) read from Casement’s speech from the dock after his conviction for treason.

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X03741 X03740 X03713 Divis St armagh women’s prison proclamation irish republic smash h block

Tony “TC” Catney

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IRA volunteer Tony “TC” Catney died in August 2014 and a volley of shots was fired over his coffin (Tele), but a memorial event was held in August 2016. To advertise the event, the IRPWA has commandeered the hoarding at corner of Divis and Northumberland streets. Catney was imprisoned at the age of 16 for the 1974 killing of Maurice Knowles. In recent times he was an RNU and JFTC2 supporter.

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X03729 Northumberland St

I Am Proud To Be A Rebel

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The third panel of three new paintings outside Casement Park continues the quote in the second, both coming from the end of Casement’s speech during his trial on charges of treason against the UK. “It is only from the convict these things [i.e. human rights] are withheld, for crime committed and proven and Ireland, that has wronged no man, has injured no land, that has sought no dominion over others — Ireland is being treated today among the nations of the world as if she were a convicted criminal. If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel, and shall cling to my “rebellion” with the last drop of my blood.”

The speech was unsuccessful; Casement was hanged in Pentonville prison, England on Augst 3rd, 1916.

The same image of Casement being led away was also painted on the recently repainted International Wall.

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Self-Government Is Our Right

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Here is the second (of three) new paintings on the exterior wall of Casement Park in Andersonstown, west Belfast celebrating the life and death of Roger Casement. The words come from Casement’s speech from the dock at his trial on charges of treason. The quote in fact reads “Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth; a thing no more to be doled out to us or withheld from us by another people than the right to life itself — than the right to feel the sun or smell the flowers or to love our kind.” As the post on the first painting (see It Is Better For Men To Fight And Die) noted, Casement made his name (and was knighted) for his reports into abuses of “human rights” in Congo and Peru.

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X03724 Andersonstown Rd

It Is Better For Men To Fight And Die

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03723 2016-08-06 Casement1+

Shown above is the first of three new boards at Casement Park in west Belfast, named for Roger Casement. Working for the British Colonial Services, Roger Casement wrote extensive reports on the abuse of indigenous people in Congo Free State (1904) and in Peru (1910).

In Congo Free State, King Leopold II of Belgium was using a private force to suppress the locals while extracting rubber; Casement’s report (archive.org) led to the Belgian government taking over Leopold’s operation and creating the Belgian Congo.

In Peru, Casement investigated abuses against the Putumayo indians at the hands of the Peruvian Amazon Company. As a result of his report, the PAC gradually lost business and folded. (WP) Casement was knighted in 1911 for his human-rights work, though this title would be stripped shortly before his execution.

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X03723 Andersonstown Rd

We Are One

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03719 2016-08-04 LoveWins H_W+

In addition to the ‘Love Wins’ paste-up (recorded separately), Joe Caslin and photographer Matthew Thompson (web) took photos of members of the LGBTQ community for an installation on Hill Street just below the mural. “We are one” is the theme of the festival this year, “which looks to celebrate the concept of family and the wider support network of those in the LGBTQ community.”

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X03719 X03718 X03720 Hill Street diversity inclusivity smirnoff

Love Wins

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03716 2016-08-04 Caslin Kiss d+

Same-sex marriages took place for the first time in England, Wales, and Scotland in 2014 (and last month on the Isle of Man (BBC-NI)) but they remain illegal in Northern Ireland. Shown here are two images of Roscommon artist Joe Caslin’s massive paste-up in Hill Street, showing a Northern Ireland couple “Charlene & Sharon” (Tw) who went to the U.S. in order to marry, and a companion piece to his piece in George’s Street South in Dublin, showing two men. The parade of Belfast’s Pride festival takes place today.

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Willowbank Huts

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The old military huts at Willow Bank (or: Willowbank; the modern-day La Salle/Iveagh area on the Falls) – which were still in use in 1896 – provided a training ground for Cumann Na mBan and the Irish Volunteers in the run-up to the Easter Rising.

The small figures between the huts and the trainees in the foreground are Charlie Monahan (born in Ballymacarrett, raised in the Markets, who died in a car accident on the way to meet Casement’s arms on board the Aud (findagrave | An Phoblacht)), Manus O’Boyle (BMH witness statement), Jack White (who fought for Britain in the second Boer War and was later captain in the Irish Citizen Army (WP)), and Volunteer Sean O’Neill.

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X03714 X03738 Divis St

Pearse Surrenders To The Developers

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03704 2016-08-03 Seany+

In January (2016) a stencil like the one above appeared in Moore Street, Dublin. Moore Street was the place of the last stand of the Easter Rising after the GPO caught fire and campaigners were thus fighting to save it from redevelopment (Irish Times). (Moore Street’s future is still uncertain at this time, late summer 2016.)

The stencil is based on a photograph of Padraig Pearse and Elizabeth O’Farrell surrendering to the British General Lowe. The piece was ‘signed’ by Banksy, though it was immediately suspected to be not by Banksy, as he had not signed any pieces for some years, and indeed, Banksy denied that it was his (e.g. Irish Times) and Will St Ledger wished that the artist had had the confidence to claim it as their own (RTÉ).

The artist was in fact Short Strand man Séan “Seany” McVeigh, who then died in June. In honour of his life, a fellow Short Strand resident (see second image, below) produced this version of McVeigh’s piece, with the name “Seany” proudly attached. (For his other “Banksy” see a Belfast version of Banksy’s Palestinian “peace” wall stencil.)

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