physical force

UFF South East Antrim Brigade

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03038 2015-09-23 UFF SEAntrim Fist+

 16 towns and town-lands of south-east County Antrim are named in this recent UFF mural: Rathcoole, Rathfern, Monkstown, Shore Road, Whitewell, Glengormley, Greenisland, Carrickfergus, Whitehead, Ballycarry, Ballyclare, Larne, Newtownards, Antrim, Antrim, Ballymena, Braidside.

This mural was painted in late summer, 2015, on a wall that had been blank since at least 2008. In 2006, it bore a UDA mural, for which see M03060 (in Peter Moloney’s collection).

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03038 knocknenagh dr red fist star garland cloughfern

Reclaim The Republic

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02987 2015-09-03 Poblacht Na hEireann+

The masthead of the 1916 proclamation declaring a “Provisional Government of the Irish Republic” to the “People of Ireland” is faithfully reproduced in this éırígí stencil, along with busts of Padraıg Pearse and Tom Clarke. Pearse, Clarke, and the other signatories will likely be familiar faces in the months leading up to Easter 2016, which is at the end of March, and the anniversary of the date itself, April 24th, 1916.

See also this entry featuring a fly-paper reproduction of the 1916 Proclamation: Brotherhoods.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Stewart’s Yard

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02988 2015-09-03 Stewarts Yard+

As the sign says, the area of what is now an Iceland supermarket on the Shankill Road was, at the time of World War I, a training ground for the Ulster Volunteers. The sign was erected to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the force, which then became the Ulster Volunteer Force which served in the war. “On the first day of enlistment for the West Belfast UVF, volunteers assembled at Stewart’s Yard in the Shankill Road. They were addressed by Colonel T. E. Hickman, the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton and a senior UVF figure who had become the Recruiting Officer for the whole of Ulster. Joining Hickman were James Craig MP, plus Stewart Blacker Quin, who was the Unionist candidate for West Belfast and the commander of the 1st Battalion West Belfast UVF.” (Richard S. Grayson, Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in First World War, p. 12) “The day following the opening of enlistment for the Division, 360 men assembled at the same yard, where after being presented with a box of cigarettes, they marched to the railway station to board trains for Donard Camp near Newcastle. These men became the corps of the 9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.” (Bygone Days)

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Collusion Untried

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Two boards about collusion in Beechmount Avenue. The first chronicles (both in words and images) alleged instances of collusion between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries, citing John Stevens, Peter Cory, and Nuala O’Loan – pages from the 2007 O’Loan report are shown in the second, below.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Campaign For Truth

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The McGurk’s Bar bombing of December, 1971 killed fifteen people – the most in a single incident during the troubles – capping what had already been a bloody year, including the “Ballymurphy Massacre” of July, in which 11 died, and starting another round of killings that would spread into the new year. Campaigners for an inquiry were busy this week in both Dublin and Belfast (Irish News).

The first nine panels of the ‘murdered’ follow to the right of the McGurk’s Bar board, presented here three-at-a-time. Note that the ninth panel (with Terry Enright in the top left) was previously the 11th panel; it is not clear why it has been moved left.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“At 8:47 pm on Saturday 4th December 1971, a no-warning bomb, planted by British terrorists, exploded on the doorstep of family-run McGurk’s Bar. Fifteen innocent men, women and children perished. Those who were not crushed or slowly asphyxiated by masonry where horrifically burned to death when shattered gas mains burst into flames beneath the rubble. Nearly the same again were dragged from the debris alive. In the aftermath of the atrocity, the British and Unionist Governments, RUC police force and British military disseminated disinformation that the bomb was in-transit and that the civilians guilty by association, if not complicit in this act of terrorism. This is despite a mountain of forensic evidence including a witness statement that saw the bomb being planted and lit before the British terrorists escaped into the night. From the moment the bomb exploded and for 40 years since, the families and friends of those murdered have campaigned constitutionally and with great dignity to clear the names of their lived ones. It is a Campaign for Truth that continues to this day. Join us at themcgurksbarmassacre.com” “

Civil Order, Plastic Death

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02897 2015-09-02 Beechm 06+

“Since 1970 seventeen people killed – including eight children”. A vintage poster against plastic bullets (see also Plastic Death in the Peter Moloney Collection for a mural) is part of this Beechmount Avenue mural showing a candle for each of the victims. The first listed (Rowntree, Molloy, Friel) were killed by rubber bullets, the rest by plastic; plastic bullets took over from rubber bullets in 1975 (WP).

Panels 10-15 of the ‘murdered’ follow to the right of the Plastic Bullets board, here presented two-at-a-time. The 11th panel (the second one shown here, with Francis Bradley in top left) was previously the ninth panel; it is not clear why its position was swapped.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02897 X02898 X02899 X02900 geddis stewart donnelly whitters carol anne carol ann kelly julie livingstone duffy norah mccabe doherty mcguiness mcconomy white downes duffy

The Truth Costs Nothing

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The British soldiers on the right of the board above are given red berets to indicate the Paratroop Regiment, which was the regiment involved in Derry’s Bloody Sunday.

“Springhill–Westrock massacre. Belfast’s Bloody Sunday. Time for truth! On the 9th July 1972 a team of British Army snipers took up firing positions in Corry’s timber yard overlooking the nationalist Springhill/Westrock estates. Within less than an hour five civilians lay dead and two critically wounded. Among the dead were three teenagers, a father of six and a priest on his way to administer the last rites to the dead and injured. There has never been a proper police investigation, and not one solider has spent a single day in prison in connection with their deaths. The families deserve, and demand the comprehensive facts be told by the British establishment. The truth costs nothing.”

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02901 Beechmount Ave John Dougal, Margaret Gargan, Fr Noel Fitzpatrick, David McCafferty, Patrick Butler