City/Town

The Only Tired I Was, Was Tired Of Giving In

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2013-12-20 RosaParks+

“She Sat Down So We Could Stand Up”. Rosa Parks was born 101 years ago today, on February 4th, 1913. This board in the New Lodge hails her as as the “mother of the civil rights movement”. It includes images of Parks in old age, a reproduction of a photo of Parks sitting on a bus in Montgomery in 1956, after the Supreme Court ruling which declared segregation on the buses illegal, eleven months after the boycott began, and a Montgomery civil rights march on December 5th, 1955 led by Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King. The title of today’s post is a Parks quote. Someone suggested to her, in an attempt to minimize her actions, that perhaps she had refused to move simply because she was tired, to which she replied, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in”.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01516 1913-2005 CEP unison

Art Is A Hammer With Which To Shape Reality

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2014-12-18 DMCJMKShoreRd+

Arts For All (Fb | web) is a community arts organization in north Belfast, sponsoring workshops and events, giving space to artists-in-residence, and putting on exhibits in its John Luke Gallery. The image above is of the mural on the side of their own building on the York Road, painted in 2012 by JMK (Jonny McKerr) and DMC (Dermot McConaghy) – their signatures can be seen on the brickwork at the right. Arts For All were also one of the sponsors of the recent WWI mural by Jonny in Tigers Bay: The Home Front.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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100 Years Of Conflict

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2014-12-18 BallysillanMilitary+

The three-storey mural above is in Ballysillan and replaced a UVF mural when it was added in 2011. The mural is the work of Jim Russell, shown below at Arts For All where he is artist-in-residence. The information below was provided by Arts For All.

The Great War: The first panel commemorates the Great War that ravaged Europe from 1914 to 1918 and shows troops advancing into battle, the Ulster Tower at Thiepval commemorating the sacrifice at the Somme and an image showing one of the war cemeteries and highlighting the true cost of war.

Second World War: The second panel features some of the devastation visited upon Belfast during a series of Luftwaffe raids during the early years of the Second World War. Belfast suffered greatly with over 1,000 people dying in four nights of bombing in April and May of 1941.

The Troubles: In the third panel highlight the dark history known as the Troubles. It features two events from the years of that time – the murder of the three young off-duty Scottish soldiers in 1971 [the monument depicted was featured in The Highland] and the Bloody Friday bombings of July 1972. In the midst of the horror that accompanied the early years of the Troubles these events still caused many to struggle to understand how people could carry out such atrocities.

Present Day Conflict: Panel four brings us up to the present day. Military service is a tradition for many in Northern Ireland and for many their first overseas trip came on the back of an overseas posting whilst serving in one of the Armed Forces. From times past, through the World Wars, the Korean War, to more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers and regiments drawn from Norther Ireland continue to play a role.

2014-12-17 JimRussell+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02445 X02428 royal highland fusiliers wolfhound high street 4th 5th may blitz lest we forget

Continuity Not Compromise

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2014-12-17 CIRAFalls+

The first image, above, shows a Continuity IRA (CIRA) stencil over what appears to be a ‘support Maghaberry POWs’ poster outside the West Belfast Partnership/Páırtíocht Iarthar Bhéal Feırste offices on the Falls Road (see the third image, below, for a wide shot). The second, below, claims that Waterford Street/Sráıd Phort Láırge is CIRA GHQ – general head-quarters.

2014-10-15 CIRAGHQ+

2014-12-17 CIRAFalls2+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Right To Be Happy

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2014-12-11 NewLodge1900+

The life of a child in the New Lodge of the 1900s was one of poverty, disease, mill work, and being displaced by German bombers in 1941, with only a lamppost swing and marbles for relief. (It was also in black-and-white.) The struggle for young people’s rights “to be loved, to family life, to freedom of expression, to life, to your own beliefs, not to be bullied, to be safe from war, to privacy, to play, to be happy” continues in the panels on the right-hand side (for close-ups, see Young People’s Rights and X05068).

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02423 tom mcelwee mickey devine linen tram irish news bronchitis

Act Now

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2014-11-28 Acht+

The Belfast Telegraph reports that an Irish language bill will be published in the near future, though the DUP have already rejected such an Act. (For more background and discussion see Brian Walker’s post a few days ago on Slugger.) The éırígí stencil above, calling for “Acht Na Gaeılge Anoıs!!!” – “An Irish Language Act Now!!!”, is in Hugo Street below a tricolour and a plaque in the memory of Pearse Jordan (see the second image, below). The wide shot shows the two other pieces on this side of the street, a ‘Justice For The Craigavon 2’ stencil (featured previously in Justice) and Palestinian skyjacker Leila Khaled.

2014-11-28 AchtFlag+

2014-11-28 AchtWide+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02407 X02408 X02409 wreath oıfıg béal feırste in memory of murdered 25th november 1992 the fools they have left us our fenian dead and while ireland holds these graves ireland unfree shall never be at peace john paul wootton brendan mcconville saoırse arabic