A burnt-out car in the shadow of St. Peter’s cathedral and at the back of the Maureen Sheehan Health Centre, just off Albert Street, which is infamous for “DHLA” (Divis Hoods Liberation Army) joyriding. The new murals in the area (such as Our Youth, Our Future) are part of an intervention project to improve it.
2014-12 update: there has been an upsurge in carjackings in late 2014 (BelTel).
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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CLG Mac Daıbhéıd/Davitt’s GAA club is named for Mícheál Mac Daıbhéad/Michael Davitt, famous for leading the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Land League. Mac Daıbhéad himself had his right arm amputated at age eleven after it got caught in the cogs of a spinning machine. The murals shown here are in the grounds of the social club on Clonard Street and celebrate the centenary of the club, 1912-2012.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Battle of Antrim took place on June 7th, 1798, as part of the Irish Rebellion of that summer. Led in the North by the Protestant Henry Joy McCracken, the rebellion met with initial successes in smaller towns, before failing in Antrim. In the full shot, below, the British soldiers can be seen in the distance.
The board above is in the grounds of The Roddy’s, a social club named after Roddy McCorley, another Protestant member of the United Irishmen, most famous for the song written about his hanging at the bridge of Toome in 1800. (Here’s a version by Tommy Makem.)
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The image above of Long Kesh/HMP Maze is by Michael Mullen. The piece is paint on board; the autographs of all of Mullen’s fellow inmates in Cage 18 are on the reverse. The work is in the Eileen Hickey Republican Museum on Conway Street.
Previously: The Maze Ablaze | Eileen Hickey | You Know Where
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A new mural, above, on the International Wall commemorates the fortieth anniversary this year of the ‘Burning Of Long Kesh’ or the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’, which took place on the night of October 15, 1974 and day of the 16th (when British Army units retook the camp).
The most comprehensive account available on-line of the conditions at the camp prior to the riot, the burning, and the battle on the morning of the 16th appears to be this 2004 piece in An Phoblacht by Joe Doherty and Christy Keenan. (For a virtual tour of the camp, see this video. Seamus Keenan’s Over The Wire (on again this month at the Derry Playhouse) attempts to recreate the scene.) Other accounts include those by Ronan Bennett, another inmate, in The Guardian, and by ‘Peter’, a British Army soldier, at Shared Troubles. Here is a brief BBC News report from the 16th.
All accounts mention the use of gas and republican accounts state that CR was used on the morning of the 16th in addition to CS, dropped from helicopters as at the top of the mural. The Guardian, in 2005, confirmed that CR had been authorized for use in controlling riots and was available at the prison. CR is a carcinogen (WP) and in a post on his blog Mairtin Óg Meehan suspects that exposure to CR is a cause of recent cancers among former prisoners. For some statistics based on interviews with prisoners, see this page at Clones Fáılte.
In the lower left corner is a quoted telegram from Fr. Denis Faul, Fr. Raymond Murray: “To international Red Cross … Visited Long Kesh today with others … Request immediate investigation into use of CR gas … sub-human conditions … SOS … come immediately …” 20 Oct. 1974. These two wrote an 80-page report on the conditions at the camp following the event, entitled The Flames Of Long Kesh. See this 1999 An Phoblacht page for an image of the shelters constructed after the battle.
The photograph which the central part of the mural reproduces is HU 70205 from the Imperial War Museum’s collection, though this is dated as October 1972.
The artists can be seen at work on the mural in an image from the Leonard Peltier post ‘Obama Holds The Key‘.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This emic (web) paste-up, which he titles ‘Deconstructions’, is on Rosemary Street at the junction with Lombard Street in the city centre.
Previously by emic: CameraMan | Through The Fog
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This stained glass by Ann Smyth was designed for the centenary of the construction of Belfast city hall, 1906-2006. At the top are the wolf and seahorse of the Belfast coat of arms, the city hall, and a tree of life. Below these we have a landscape in the style of John Luke’s The Fox, modified with a Massey Ferguson tractor and an electric hare (which CultureNI claims was invented by a Belfast man) instead of the fox. To the right of these stand a guitar, an artist’s palette, boxing gloves, various sports balls, and snooker’s fifteen reds. Ernest Walton smashed the atom in 1932. Short Brothers in 1957 produced the world’s first vertical take-off and landing aircraft and in 1963 the Skyvan. We also see the Waterfront, the Big Fish, the Thanksgiving Square Beacon, and Harland & Wolff’s Samson & Goliath and Titanic. In the bottom left corner is a town page upon which is repeated the refrain from I’ll Tell Me Ma: “She is handsome, she is pretty, she is the belle of Belfast city”.
Previously: One Big Union | Famine Window
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The stained glass window above is in Cultúrlann McAdam – O’Fıaıch (cultural centre, named for two clergymen, Presbyterian Robert McAdam and Catholic Tomás Ó Fıaıch) on the Falls Road and features some of the spaces within the centre: An Ceathrú Póılí: Sıopa Leabhar Gaeılge Bhéal Feırste (Irish-language bookstore), Caıfé Feırste (café), Dánlann Dillon (Dillon Gallery).
More stained glass in the Cultúrlann: White Line
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Above is a new board (on painted background) at the Falls Road Garden of Remembrance for IRA volunteers in D company (the ‘Dogs’) of the 2nd battalion Belfast Brigade and local civilians from the lower Falls who died in the 20s, 70s and 90s. The main board shows a map of the area from Dunville Park to the Divis flats with lilies marking the spots of various deaths. Surrounding it are the portraits of fourteen of the volunteers listed on the marble – Maguire, O’Rawe, McKelney, Donaghy, Quigley, McAreavey, Hughes, Loughran, MacBride, Kelly, Carson, Campbell, Skillen, Marley.
Below is a wide shot showing the garden and mural.
CAIN have video of the garden
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Maze/Long Kesh was set ablaze by Republican inmates 40 years ago, on the night of October 15th, 1974. Above is a picture by Matt Kelly, who was held in Cage 18. The picture is in the Eileen Hickey Republican Museum on Conway Street.
Previously: The Maze Ablaze (includes background information)| Long Kesh At Night | Eileen Hickey | You Know Where
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 