City/Town

Free Leonard Peltier

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2013-08-09 PeltierSide+

A message for the U.S. government on the side of Black Mountain this week, concerning the incarceration of Leonard Peltier for the shooting deaths of two FBI agents in South Dakota (WP). A U.S. flag flies at the top of the lettering, and the scale of the piece can be gauged from the small crowd of people standing off to the left. Below is a straight-on shot and, before that, a view from the corner of the shops at the Springfield/Whiterock junction.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Peace With Justice

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2013-08-08 Stagg+

Mural from mid-2011 on the “international wall” (Visual History) featuring a quote from early (1976) hunger-striker Frank Stagg (WP), along with portraits of Stagg, Michael Gaughan (d. 1974 WP) and the 10 strikers who died in 1981. The images of Stagg and Gaughan, along with a Tricolour and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, are here concealed by a placard announcing a rally commemorating the hunger strikers.

The protesters on the left date back to a 1981 poster which was reproduced for the very first mural – see I’ll Wear No Convict’s Uniform.

This mural takes the place of a pro-Basque mural (and the Martin Meehan bookmark) in the second half of 2011. There is currently no Basque mural on the wall.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01249 no greater love as no man than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends

Joe McKelvey Society

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Poster from the 1916 Societies (Fb), specifically the West Belfast Joe McKelvey Society, named after the anti-treaty IRA commander (WP). (There is also a society named after McKelvey in his home town of Stewartstown, Co Tyrone. (Fb)) The flag (shown below) is in the Republican Museum, Conway Mill.

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McMahon Relics

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2013-08-08 BVM1922-2+

Above is an image of one of two surviving religious pictures from the McMahon household on Kinnaird Terrace, off the Antrim Road. The picture was in the house the night five members of the family and one other person were killed, in 1922, by members of the RIC or the Specials (milltowncemetery.com, WP). The holes on the left and at the bottom are thought to be bullet holes, while the article below claims the tear in the upper centre is from the butt of a rifle. The picture is at present on display in the Republican Museum on Conway Street.

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Bonfire Flags

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Three images of flags on two republican bonfires, built to commemorate the introduction of internment in 1971. According to news reports (e.g. BBC-NI), the ‘Celebrating Our Culture’ banner on this bonfire at the base of Divis tower had been stolen from Linfield Road in south Belfast (it hung to the left of the mural to the left in this image) but was subsequently removed from the bonfire (whether or not it was returned is not reported). The image above is from Thursday (Aug. 8th). (Last year’s bonfire also had stolen PUL banners: see M08775.)

The flag in the second image (an Ulster flag with a tricolour in the corner and the words ‘The Only Ulster’ on the bottom) was on the Divis bonfire during construction on Wednesday but removed by Thursday. The third image is of a bonfire in Beechmount (between Corpus Christi and St. Paul’s schools) flying the flags of various loyalist groups, as well as the Union flag and the Northern Ireland flag.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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At The Crossroads

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2013-08-06 CrossPolitcalPolic+

Two images today from the crossroads at the intersection of Crossmaglen-Newry and Newtownhamilton-Dundalk roads (a.k.a. Ford’s Cross, Silverbridge). The first shows a hunger-strikers board from this year over a much older ‘democracy under attack’ board (see D02009). The second shows the plough and the stars flying above the mileage sign. There is also a memorial, with a tricolour flying overhead, at this crossroads

2013-08-06 CrossFlag+

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Barrack-Busters

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2013-08-06 CrossPanel+

A metal plate, previously an advertisement for Calor Gas, now sports republican graffiti and a flyer: Built by robots, flown by dummies, taken out by 2nd Batt. barrack-busters.

The incident in question is a 1994 IRA mortar attack on a British Army helicopter at the Crossmaglen barracks. (CAIN | WP page on the incident). The mortar used a Calor Gas tube, though not the one shown here. (WP page on the mortar)

The shot below includes the board above the wall: Stop Maghaberry strip searches.

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No Grabbers Here

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2013-08-05 Absentee+

A sign in Crossmaglen/Crois Mhic Lionnáin: No absentee landlords repossessor’s or their agents wanted in south Armagh.

The sign is presumably in relation to the shuttered Quinn’s supermarket across the street, of which there are three images below. The graffiti reads ‘No Sale’ and ‘No land grabbers here’. The supermarket closed in June, 2013 (Crossmaglen Examiner).

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My Brother Is Not A Criminal

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The brothers in question are Raymond and Brian McCreesh, from Camlough, Co Armagh. Raymond is third in the list of the ten deceased 1981 hunger strikers. “In memory of the volunteers who died on hunger strike in H-Blocks 1981.” “H-Block is rock that the British monster shall perish upon for we in H-Block stand upon the unconquerable rock of the Irish socialist republic – Bobby Sands”.

The lower stone reads “These men made the supreme sacrifice for their country by dying on hunger strike from 1917 to 1976: 1917 Thomas Ashe; 1920 Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Terence McSwiney; 1923 Joseph Whitty, Denis Barry, Andy Sullivan; 1940 Tony Darcy Sean McNeela; 1946 Sean McCaughey; 1974 Michael Gaughan; 1976 Frank Stagg. “It is not those who can inflict the most but those that can suffer the most who will conquer” – Terence McSwiney.”

New Road, Silverbridge

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