City/Town

Where Is The Integrity In Murder?

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Twenty-five victims of five “Shankill atrocities” – at the Four Step Inn, the Balmoral Furniture Store, Mountainview Bar, Bayardo Bar, and (from the 1990s) Frizzell’s fish shop – are remembered in an updated board in Dundee Street. The central image remains 17-month-old Colin Nichol in the arms of ambulance man Bob Scott. (See the Peter Moloney Collection for the previous version. Before that, there was a painted version on Bellevue Street: Where is our truth?)

“30 years of indiscriminate slaughter by so-called non-sectarian Irish freedom fighters. Provisional Sinn Fein demands “equality/respect/integrity”. No military targets! No economic targets! No legitimate targets! No enquiries! No truth! No justice! Where is the “equality” in justice? Where is the “respect” for Protestants? Where is the “integrity” in murder? We remember the victims of Provisional Sinn Fein genocide.”

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

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The picture tells a thousand words and a few more are added around the top: “Individual, unique, cherished, treasured, miraculous, fearfully & wonderfully made. Survivor!” This is Mark Ervine’s piece for HitTheEast. In the in-progress shot below, Mark stands aside to let a local try her hand.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Bank Street

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The old Bank Street (looking towards St Mary’s, Chapel Lane) is recreated in a new mural outside Manny’s fish and chips, though with some liberties taken. (Here is the street in 1915 and in 1924.) Kelly’s Cellars, for example, is where Bittles Bar is shown; Bittles Bar was the flatiron building on Victoria Street, recently sold.

Landmarks such as City Hall, the Titanic Centre, the H&W cranes, and An Chultúrlann are included. On the right side of the mural (see the wide shot, below) three murals are included: the one outside Madden’s Bar, the one on the West Belfast Taxi terminal and the Madonna And Child mural at the bottom of Divis that hasn’t existed since about 2000.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Common Sense

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 The Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) (Tw | Fb) is an advisory body to the UDA and produced Common Sense (available at CAIN) in 1987 (and before that, in 1979, NUPRG produced Beyond The Religious Divide, which is mentioned in the long-standing John McMichael mural in Lemberg Street (see We Must Share The Responsibility); this is the side-wall to the new C Coy South Belfast UDA/UFF/UDU/UYM/LPA mural in Tavanagh Street.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Nora & Ina

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This year’s Féıle An Phobaıl saw the launch of a new stained glass window in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fıaıch. It features James Connolly (Séamus Ó Conghaıle 1868-1916) for his support of the Irish language and the support his two daughters Nora and Ina gave to the founding of the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeılge) in Belfast. The family is also featured in the centenary mural on Divis Street: Shan Van Vocht and Howth Gun Running. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (tw).

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Whispering Winds Why Do You Weep?

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IRA volunteer Francis Liggett was shot dead by the British Army during an attempted armed robbery at Royal Victoria Hospital, Falls Road in 1973 (Sutton) while local Sinn Féin member Paddy Brady was shot by the UFF while at work in 1984 (Sutton | An Phoblacht). They are commemorated in the St James memorial garden with the board shown above, featuring two verses from Bobby Sands’s poem Weeping Winds: Oh, Whispering [Whistling, in the original] winds why do you weep/When roaming free you are,
Oh! Is it that your poor heart’s broke/And scattered off afar?
Or is it that you bear the cries/Of people born unfree,
Who like your way have no control/Or sovereign destiny?
Oh! Lonely winds that stalk [walk] the night/To haunt the sinner’s soul/
Pray pity me a wretched lad/Who never will grow old.
Pray pity those who lie in pain/The bondsman and the slave
And whisper sweet the breath of God/Upon my humble grave.

The board is similar in design to the painted one it replaces, except that Éire was at the centre rather than the “SF” logo.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Free T Taylor

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RNU member Tony Taylor was jailed for three years in 2011 for possession of a rifle and had his early release license revoked in 2016 and returned to Maghaberry. Over the last month, both Sınn Féın and SDLP politicians in Belfast and Derry have called for him to be either charged or released, alleging that his detention is contrary to section 6 of the Human Rights Act (Irish News | Derry Now | Derry Now). Gael Force Art (Fb) took to Slıabh Dubh/Black Mountain to highlight the case.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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