“They cannot or never will break our spirit … Tıocfaıdh ár lá” – Bobby Sands. For the 30th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike in which ten republican prisoners died in the H Blocks.
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“30th anniversary of the hunger strike. 5th May 1981. IRA final salute. IRA Vol. Bobby Sands, MP Fermanagh South Tyrone.” Gerry Adams watches on as a funeral volley is fired over Sands’s coffin.
(Here is a close variant of the photograph reproduced in the mural.)
Whiterock Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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An angelic face bearing a rose in Alexandra Park, north Belfast.
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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In 2011, Éırígí contested the local election in Belfast, fielding candidates in two areas. Pádraıc Mac Coıtır received 1,415 first preference votes (more than 10%) in Upper Falls and John McCusker 647 in Lower Falls. Neither was successful (WP).
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here are three details from the metalworks in the Mount Vernon WWI memorial garden, showing scenes from the conflict and a map of the area around Messines (photoshopped in red). For more, including the panels to John Cordon and William McFadzean, see M07770.
Update: As the images below from 2017 and 2018 show, the metalworks themselves have also been repainted (and replaced in a slightly different configuration), a new gate has been installed and the boards on the surrounding wall have been restored, against a freshly-painted background of green. The boards have verses from Laurence Binyon’s For The Fallen. “They mingle not with their laughing comrades again/They sit no more at familiar tables of home/They have no lot in our labour of the day-time/They sleep beyond Ulster’s [originally, England’s] foam.”
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Copyright © 2011/2017/2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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T04420 T04419 courtesy of Paddy Duffy
Queen Victoria and entourage paddle along the Irish shore at the end of the Great Hunger. (Here are one | two discussions of her visit and (un)involvement with famine relief.) Work by Rosie McGurran (Fb) in (the old) Linden Street, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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When the mural to “the first blanketman” Kieran Nugent mural (in the Rock streets) was re-done in February 2011, it was initially framed with a terrific selection of posters from the period, many of them from continental Europe, about Kieran, the blanket protest, and hunger striker.
“I’m not a criminal. The Brits will have to nail prison clothes to my back.” For the previous mural, and some background about Nugent going “on the blanket”, see M02550.
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Titanic sails (impossibly) between the Giant’s Causeway (on the left) and one of the Harland & Wolff cranes – all under Napoleon’s Nose and Cave Hill.
This mural replaced a UDA mural in Downing Street, Shankill, west Belfast.
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A picnic basket of political parties: PUP, Conservatives and Unionists, DUP, [perhaps Alliance sticking out at the bottom] SDLP, and Sınn Féın. Painted for International Peace Day, 2009.
Northumberland Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“This mural is dedicated to the officers and members of the Woodvale Defence Association who gave their lives and their freedom in defence of this are. All gave some, some gave all. Quis separabit.” The plaque reads: “This plaque is dedicated to the officers and members of ‘B’ Company WDA (UFF) who gave their lives and their freedom in defence of the Woodvale. Quis separabit.
Ernie “Duke” Elliott came from the Woodvale area and was a founder member of the Woodvale Defence Association in 1971, which was later folded into the UDA. He was also a Marxist. He was killed in a pub brawl in December 1972 in a dispute over weapons (WP | Tele | Watching The Door).
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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 