Anti-touting posters on the Whiterock and Falls roads: “People Should Not Inform” to the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Mi5. The Falls example also has a “End the internment of Tony Taylor” sticker from “Irish Republican Tims [Fb?]”.
Previously: A PSNI from the loyalist side.
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“We must take no steps backward, our steps must be onward. If we don’t, the martyrs that died for you, for me, for this country … will haunt us forever” — the words of Máıre Drumm from an anti-internment rally in Dunville Park on 10th August, 1975 (RN) are featured against a backdrop of female volunteers in Cumann Na mBan wearing berets and holding rifles.
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The history-of-republicanism mural now taking up the majority of the International Wall is not without controversy among republicans. One point of contention is the inclusion of Edward Carson’s portrait and the related scene of the Larne gun-running. Carson was leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance, campaigner against Home Rule, and founder of the Ulster Volunteers. 25,000 guns and more than 3 million rounds of ammunition were smuggled ashore at Larne, Donaghadee, and Bangor (see the second image for a sketch and the bottom two images for the completed scene). The formation of the UVF drew a counter-reaction in the formation of the Irish Volunteers, and membership was spurred on by the Larne gun-running. (See the third image.)
Carson’s image was originally paint-bombed in March (BMG | BelTel) and then again in April when “loose talk” posters were also added (Irish News). (For Loose Talk posters over the Otegi mural, see Loose-Talk Costs Lives.) For the launch on August 3rd, the posters were removed but the paint-bombing was not fixed. The image above is from June, 2016.
Grid for the gun-running scene; image from March 2016. It is based on a drawing from the Illustrated London News, which can be seen in this RTÉ article on the gunrunning. About 600 cars were used in the operation, perhaps the first large-scale use of motorised vehicles.
A newsboy carries a paper announcing the burgeoning Irish Volunteers. The headline portrayed was later changed, as can be seen in one of the images below.
The first part of wall at the end of March, before the addition of the ‘loose talk’ posters over Carson’s face.
The panel as it appears in August; the removal of the posters tore away some of the paint around Carson’s face.
A late August repaint makes Carson’s forehead protrude and the fingers of his hand are curled up. A Fáılte Feırste Thıar/Welcome To West Belfast panel has been added. (Presumably this welcome does not extend to the weapons being smuggled in as part of the gun-running.)
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X03491 X03337 X03493 X03355 X03733 X03819 divis st we will not have home rule in ireland promoting west belfast tourism visitwestbelfast.com
“Fıann [sic] James ‘Pavlo’ O’Neill died close to this spot while on active service, aged 17. Born 21st December 1958 – died 12th February 1976. Fuaır sé bás ar son na hÉıreann. 1958-1976”. Jim O’Neill was killed in during an IRA arson attack on a furniture warehouse on the Antrim Road near the New Lodge – Gerry Fitt’s house next door might have been the ultimate target (Belfast Child). The local flute band is in part named after him – see O’Neill-Allsopp Memorial Flute Band.
Dawson Street, New Lodge, north Belfast.
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Érıu/Éıre of the Tuatha Dé Danann, queen of Ireland, (as depicted by Richard J King) is at the centre of various representations of republican women. Along the top are Ann Devlin, Betsy Gray, Mary Ann McCracken, Countess Markievicz, Nora Connolly?, and Winifred Carney. Suffragettes, the modern IRA, and Cumman Na mBan are depicted, as are Máıre Drumm at the Falls Curfew, Tom McElwee’s sisters carrying his coffin, and Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice running guns on the Asgard. There is also an unusual ‘four provinces’ in the corners.
The wide shot (below) shows the James Connolly mural below (seen previously in 2012) and the (recently added) 1916 centenary board – for which see Ag fíorú na poblachta.
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In quick succession to the Easter Rising centenary mural in the same spot, there comes this 32 County Sovereignty Movement mural, with the island of Ireland in green, white, and orange, and (representing prisoners) barbed wire and a candle.
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Tony Taylor, an RNU leader and former IRA man in Derry, remains in Maghaberry prison after having his license revoked in March of this year. (See Free Tony Taylor.) Sinn Féin last week again called for Taylor’s immediate release of Tony Taylor (youtube). The Cogús mural above is in Beechmount Avenue.
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Two views of an IRPWA banner where Divis Street intersects with the motorway. It proclaims “Political dissent is not a crime – End internment now.”
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Nell (l) and Elizabeth (r) Corr from 107 Ormeau Road joined Cumann Na mBan in 1915 and travelled to Dublin in 1916 (with Nora Connolly, Ina Connolly, Bridie Farrell, Lizie Allen, Kathleen Murphy, and another girl called O’Neill (Treason Felony)) to serve as messengers in the preparations for April’s Easter Rising. They were in Liberty Hall (shown in the detail above) on the morning of the rising before heading north. Brother George, on the other hand, died at the Somme as a soldier in the Australian infantry, while another brother, Charles, fought in WWI with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. They are pictured on the left-hand side of the mural. (BBC | BBC video) There are two images of the work in-progress at the bottom of the post.
Elizabeth’s account of Easter Sunday and Monday is available at the Bureau Of Military History.
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X03424 X03468 X03469 X03422 X03423 X03425 Essex Grove Mickey Doherty the irishwomen’s council 206 great brunswick st. join the volunteer movement and become members of the above organisation first aid and ambulance classes reserve corps of trained nurses drill and rifle practices contribute to our equipment fund which has already bought rifles for the volunteers oglaigh na heireann public meeting large concert hall we serve neither king nor kaiser but ireland canadian armed forces
After a larger version of the poster on boards (Belfast Live | Belfast Telegraph) was taken down, the wall beneath — a mural to (now-released) Basque activist Arnaldo Otegi, featured previously in Free Otegi — has been plastered with these flyer-sized versions of an old (possibly 1970s) Provisional IRA poster warning the republican community about information-gathering by the security forces: “Loose-talk costs lives. In taxis, on the phone, at footbal[l] matches, at home with friends, anywhere! Whatever you say – say nothing.”
For a link to the 1975 Seamus Heaney poem “Whatever you say, say nothing” and a video of Colum Sands singing his song of the same name, see You Know Where.
Update: the flyers were removed on Wednesday 27th around lunchtime.
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