physical force

Bullets Travel Also Through Time

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“South Belfast – time for truth – exposing collusion – Ormeau Road – ‘Bullets do not only travel distance but also through time'” [Based on a quote by James Kennedy’s father: “The bullets that killed James didn’t just travel in distance, they travelled in time. Some of those bullets never stop travelling.” (Irish Times)]

Police Ombudsman Marie Andersons’s report into various murders and attempted murders in south Belfast was released yesterday (February 7th, 2022) and presented a list of “collusive behaviours” between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries. Among the incidents investigated was the killing of five people “murdered for their faith” at the Sean Graham bookies’ office on the Ormeau Road in February 5th, 1992; the report found that one of the two UDA gunmen was a Special Branch informant and that a Browning pistol used in the attack had been supplied by the RUC (as had previously been revealed in the 2010 HET Inquiry report) and that records relating to the weapon had been withheld from investigators (Irish Times | Belfast Live). For the 30th anniversary, relatives of the five men killed and of five more who were injured displayed their portraits next to the small memorial garden, which itself was updated to mark the third decade since their deaths: “1992-2022” (Belfast Live).

The plaque on the far left is to Charles Joseph McGrillen, shot by the UDA/UFF in 1988 at his work in Dunne’s on the Annadale embankment (Sutton). Next to the bookies’ parlour is a plaque to Fian Jim Templeton.

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X09015 X09014 X09013 X09012 hatfield st go ndéana Dıa trócaıre ar a n-anamacha

Justice For Eddie Meenan

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The trial has begun, before Londonderry Crown Court, of three men accused of the murder of Eddie Meenan, who was stabbed 40-50 times in November, 2018 (Derry Journal | BBC). The graffiti above is on the electrical box at the bottom of Fahan Street, next to a Lasaır Dhearg (web) ‘Don’t join the PSNI’ poster (shown below), with the Che Guevara Lynch mural visible on the left.

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Copyright © 2021 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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Get Me Back To The Green Hill

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“Don’t let me body lie here – get me back to the green hill by Murlough, by the McCarry’s house, looking down on the Moyle. That’s where I’d like to be now, that’s where I’d like to lie. … Death is not dark but only deeper blue.” [Letter to Elizabeth “Eilis” Bannister, July 25th, 1916] Roger Casement was executed in Pentonville prison, in England, in 1916, for his role in gunrunning for the Rising, and his corpse was buried in the prison cemetery. Despite repeated requests for repatriation, it wasn’t until 1965 that the corpse was returned to Ireland – but to his home town of Dublin rather than to his beloved Murlough, where his cousins Eilis and Gertrude lived (in what was by then Northern Ireland): the corpse was released on condition that it not enter Northern Ireland, for fear of stoking political tensions between the sects (WP).

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X09004 X09011 erected by casement commemoration committee Andersonstown Rd

One World, One Struggle

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“One world, one struggle” and one common cause: British imperialism. The Palestinian flag flies beside Free Derry Corner (and the Petrol Bomber mural), which has been papered over with “There is n0 British justice” – this sets the theme for the march this afternoon (recreating the 1972 civil rights march in Derry from Creggan to the Bogside, starting at 2:30) which not only commemorates the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday (Bloody Sunday 50) but protests the British occupation of countries all around the world – the poster from Bloody Sunday March makes reference to the Amritsar (Jallianwala Bagh) Massacre, the Barbados Slave Code, (Second) Boer War concentration camps, and many others.

See also: the Visual History pages for the front of Free Derry Corner | the rear of Free Derry Corner

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Copyright © 2021 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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Whitehead Temperance

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Benjamin West painted The Battle Of The Boyne in 1778 and his composition – with William moving from left to right on a white horse and Marshal Schomberg dying in the bottom-right corner – has become the standard representation in loyalist culture, perhaps due to versions of it appearing on the covers of songbooks for the Orange Order and the Apprentice Boys soon after (Belinda Loftus 1982 Images In Conflict). It appears here on the wall of Whitehead Orange Hall, along with a board connecting service by Irish soldiers in British forces in WWI and Afghanistan (see previously: Time Changes in east Belfast).

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Honour, Loyalty, Liberty, Sacrifice

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A new backdrop – of a field of poppies beneath a blue sky– has been added to the UFF memorial garden in Tigers Bay. The four stones/plaques in the garden are shown below in the order that they were added to the garden, starting with two to the North Belfast Brigade that were present in 2008 (see M04397). The third was a roll of honour of the “Scottish Brigade North Ayrshire”. The fourth is generically to “those we have loved and lost” but contains a strand of barbed wire, symbol of POWs.

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Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Justice Denied

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The “Craigavon 2” are Brendan McConville and John-Paul Wootton; they were convicted of the 2009 murder of PSNI constable Stephen Carroll. The “set up by MI5” and/or “appeals sabotaged” on the RNU board shown above is a reference to the claim that MI5 agent Dennis McFadden had infiltrated the campaign for justice for Brendan McConville (Irish News). Also at this site are graffiti about Noah Donohoe and an anti-drug-dealer board from Saoradh.

The earliest JFTC2 post in the collection is from 2013.

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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08842 X08843 [X08474] X08841 [X08839] Springfield Rd

Jock Davison

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Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison (here spelled “Gerarrd ‘Jock’ Davidson, 3rd Batt”) was an IRA volunteer who became a community worker in the Markets after the peace. He was shot dead in 2015 (BBC), probably by republicans, and the murder case is still open (Bel Tel | Irish Examiner). It drew publicity in 2021 because a date for the inquest into his alleged killer’s death (which occurred three months later, possibly at the hands of IRA members still holding weapons) has been set (Irish News), the arrest in Spain of a criminal wanted for questioning in connection with the gun used (Bel Tel), and because it was revealed that the PSNI warned him his life might be in danger a month before he was shot (Irish News).

This graffiti tribute is in Carrick Hill.

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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Unsung Heroes

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“The young and the old rallied around/To help fight the forces of the British crown/Unsung heroes too many to name/Defended Unity flats and never sought fame”. Unity flats were built in 1968 to replace the old Carrick Hill but immediately came under repeated attack by loyalists from the nearby Peter’s Hill and Shankill; by 1987 their demolition had been approved but because of difficulty in rehousing residents (Hansard), the new Carrick Hill was not completed until 2009 (BelTel). The flats have a Facebook page, Growing Up In Unity Flats. The plaques shown today are on the side of the newsagents in the new Carrick Hill.

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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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End The Occupation

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“20,000+ security personnel maintain Britain’s occupation of Ireland.” ‘End imperialism, End the occupation’ is a Lasair Dhearg (web) campaign; the 20,000 includes the PSNI as well as troops in “multiple permanent British Army bases”; the stencil in the image below (from affiliated organisation, Red Section (tw)), from the Monagh Bypass, suggests that there are “700+ MI5 agents in Ireland”. The tarp shown above is on the railings at the Falls Road/Glen Road junction, site of the former RUC barracks; the stencil is on the Andersonstown Road.

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Copyright © 2021 Sabine Troendle/Seosamh Mac Coılle
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