“RNU call for the release of Leonard Peltier – http://www.freeleonard.org“. The lower left-hand panel of the RNU spot on Northumberland Street is serving as a changeable notice-board – it was previously The Popular Front.
Peltier has been in jail since 1977, convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975 and sentenced to two life-sentences (WP).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03312
Charlie Hedbo, the satirical Parisian weekly which became internationally known after a gun attack in January in which 12 were killed, is named after Charlie Brown (from Charles Schultz’s Peanuts) but the Charlie Chaplin above (as seen in The Kid) uses French to try to claim the name for himself. Chaplin and his family settled in French-speaking Switzerland after he was denied entry to the US as part of Joseph McCarthy’s witch-hunt of artists with alleged communist sympathies (WP). Stencil by Patrick Devlin in the city centre.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02517
“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”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01516 1913-2005 CEP unison
Yesterday’s symbolic vote on Catalonian independence (for more background see Votes About Votes) showed 81% in favour of separation from Spain. Here are three shots of the encouragement on Slıabh Dubh (Black Mountain), the second with the Ballymurphy Easter Rising mural in the foreground, the third with the wall of superheroes in Slıabh Dubh estate (see Wallbusters | The Walls, Unbroken | Red-Eye | Cartoon World).
Previous messages on the mountain can be seen on its Visual History page.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02335 X02333 X02334
The 7.5 million people of the Spanish region of Catalonia will go to the polls on November 9th for a vote on independence, though it will no longer be a referendum but a non-binding ‘consultation of the citizens’. Indeed, the Spanish government in the last 24 hours has begun taking steps to block even that vote (Reuters). The “Catalan Countries” are Catalonia, Valenicia, and the Balearic Islands, along with Andorra and the French region of Rousillon – see the WP page on Països Catalans for greater detail.
The Catalan mural was painted on top of the mural to blanketman Kieran Nugent (and Brendan Hughes) (seen here in Belfast’s Infamous Prison) which caused some consternation. As can be seen below, Nugent is now being painted into the hunger-strikers mural (Peace With Justice) along with Maıréad Farrell, who led the protest in Armagh Women’s Prison.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02310 X02319 yes to the referendum for independence for catalan countries catalans want to vote
Stencil on the Falls Road pavement: “End Israeli genocide in Palestine”. For the same message on the New Lodge flats see End The Genocide In Gaza and at Free Derry corner: You Are Now Entering Free Gaza.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02292
A pro-Gaza “Viva Palestine” mural/stencil has replaced the Maıréad Farrell piece at the top of Berwick Road/Paráıd An Ardghleanna in Ardoyne/Ard Eoın. The flyer on the box touts high-speed broadband – you can go anywhere you want on-line, but, as can be seen from the wide shot below, the road itself runs straight into the Glenbryn “peace” line.
The mural – with stencilled fists and the image of Leila Khaled – is very similar to one in Hugo Street. It is positioned between ‘PSNI Not Welcome‘ and an RNU phoenix (shown in the Maıréad Farrell image)
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02280 X02281
A Che Guevara quote – “I don’t care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting” – unifies two panels bearing masked men firing funeral volleys, Irish and Palestinian shields, and “Our day will come” in both Irish and Arabic.
Previously: Someone Else
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02190 X02191 X02192 tıocfaıdh ár lá saoırse
Black Mountain/Slıabh Dubh’s ‘Viva Palestine‘ became ‘Viva Ireland’ – shown below – which in turn was quickly replaced with ‘Yes Scotland’, shown above as seen over the wall of the Springfield PSNI barracks from the (Protestant) Springmartin Road: a union flag and a St. Andrew’s (Scottish) saltire fly from houses in the foreground. These two flags are being used in the media to represent the opposing sides: the Saltire for ‘Yes’ and the Union flag for ‘No’. Scots go to the polls on Thursday the 18th; the two polls of the past week (You-Gov | TNS) suggest that the sides are running neck-and-neck.
Previously: A message To The People Of Scotland
See also: the Slıabh Dubh Visual History page.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02172 X02148
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him”. In a sermon on November 4th, 1956 (and repeated on other occasions), Martin Luther King, Jr. imagined a letter from Paul to the Christians of America, expressing concern for spiritual life in a capitalist society and appealing for desegregation of society using non-violent methods: “the weapon of love”, keeping in mind “that you are merely seeking justice for him as well as yourself”.
Click for audio – the remark quoted occurs at the 3 minute mark of section 4 (archive.org) | Text (1958) – see page 7 (= 344)
The image below shows the site in mid-August, without the pro-Palestine boards (for an Irish-language version of which see An Phalaıstín/Palestine; the image above is from the first week of September, 2014.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02168 X02095 maıréad farrell republican youth committee “let no man pull you low enough to hate him” free gaza stop the persecution sınn féın beechmount street
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 