32 Or Nothing

This poster, which is all over the lower Falls, is in response to recent Gerry Adams  interviews, one with Peter Taylor, in which he told dissidents to “Go away”, and aninterview with Andrew Marr where Adams said that the IRA is gone: “We are not going anywhere, Gerry. 32 [county Ireland] or nothing … the IRA.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04953 X04961

West Belfast Waiting For A Home

Here is another PPR/#buildhomesnow stencil on the issue of affordable housing in Belfast. The sites suggested in this piece are the old Mackies factory off the Springfield Road (demolished in 2003) and Glenmonagh (west of the Monagh by-pass).

For the suggestion of Hillview as a site, see Homes!!! and Lidl On Equality. For a fuller list of sites, see Build Homes Now. See also Equality Can’t Wait

Replaces the COYBIG mural for Euro 2016.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04947

Homes!!!

Hillview is the – currently vacant – 11-acre area on the Crumlin Road between Woodvale and Ardoyne, formerly the site of a Dunnes store. In August of 2017 the City Council voted to allow the site to be redeveloped as a shopping centre (Belfast Live | BelTel). The possibility of using the site for housing has been pressed by PPR (see Lidl On Equality and various Build Homes Now posts); the tarp shown above is sponsored by Saoradh, who took up the cause in September.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04945 ardoyne ave

The Grey Wolf

Tucked away at the end of Ashfield Crescent in north Belfast is the Dunmore base – there is another in Coleraine – of the North Irish Horse (web | Fb), a light cavalry reconnaissance unit of the British Army. It was originally created in 1902; after recent restructuring, it comes under the command of the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04943 X04942 X04944

Saidie Patterson

A “blue plaque” has been erected on the front of the Shankill Methodist church (on the Shankill at Berlin Street) to Saidie Patterson “trade unionist and peace activist”. In 1940 she led a seven-week strike to improve conditions and pay in Ewart’s linen mill on the Crumlin Road, where she had been working since age 14. As noted on the plaque, she was the first winner of the World Methodist Peace Prize (in 1977) – Allan McCullough has a photo of Patterson with her medal (the one in the middle). The plaque was unveiled on International Women’s Day 2018. (Irish News | Bel Tel | BBC-NI)

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04937

Who Went To War And Never Returned

It is usually the fourth verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen that is quoted on memorial stones to the fallen of the WWI but here we have the third verse: They went with songs to the battle, they were young/Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow/They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted/They fell with their faces to the foe. The stone commemorates “the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who gave their lives for King and country at the Battle of the Somme 1st July – 18th November 1916”. It is in the garden adjacent to the West Kirk Presbyterian church (Fb) on the Shankill Road. As the image below shows, the garden is also host to many small boards to individual soldier (see previously Among The FallenXXXVI | The Sacrifice Remains The Same).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04938 X04747

Same Aim – Different Name

The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was reformed in 2001 as the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), as recommended by the Patten Commission. This Saoradh (webFb) tarp in Hugo Street questions the extent to which the force has changed. The traditional RUC officer in bullet-proof vest is on the left; the modern officer on the right is more heavily protected. In the centre, the PSNI emblem overlays the old RUC one, with Stormont in the background.

For the board celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, see versions in AndersonstownArdoyne | St James’s.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04934