“End the seige [sic] of Ardoyne. RIRA” – vintage graffiti going back to 2014 (at least) and perhaps to the tensions over parading in 2012 and 2013.
Oldpark Road, north Belfast
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Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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political
EU/PIRA
“Dublin hands off Ulster – EU/PIRA”. For this Agnes Street graffitist, the EU’s refusal to accept a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic make it bedfellows with the IRA.
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Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Concerned Unionists
“Public meeting. Concerned unionists of south Belfast. Wednesday 6th November 7.15 pm Sandy Row Orange Hall. Stop the #BetrayalAct”. Tonight will see a meeting in south Belfast (and another at the same time in Antrim) discussing the current Conservative Brexit plan that would allow some cross-border economic activity to continue – see The Betrayal Act. “VTOT” is “Village Team On Tour“.
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The Betrayal Act
Is Brexit more important than the Union? Conservative party leader Boris Johnson, whose current plan involves a border in the Irish Sea, is depicted as betraying the sacrifice of the Ulster Volunteers, formed in 1912 to resist the threat of Home Rule. In response, meetings are being held in different unionist areas: November 1st saw meetings in north Belfast and on the Shankill; meetings are scheduled in Sandy Row and the Steeple (Antrim) for Wednesday the 6th. Rallies and civil disobedience are being contemplated but also that the DUP would join Remainers in order to stop Brexit entirely. “Ulster says “No” to an economic united Ireland”.
The same banner is in Kilburn Street, Village, south Belfast (above) and (below) Templemore Avenue, east Belfast
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Dr. William Drennan
“Dr. William Drennan 1754-1820. Patriot & radical. Born in the manse on this site.” Drennan’s father was the minister at the First Presbyterian Church on Rosemary Street where Drennan was born in 1754. He co-founded the Society of United Irishmen in 1791 (and in 1810, Inst).
There is a mural to Drennan in New Lodge.
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What Is A Free Nation?
In the Workers’ Republic of February 12th, 1916, James Connolly posed the question “What is a free nation?” and, further, whether the Home Rule bill would make Ireland free in the requisite sense. “No” was his answer to the latter, and instead sovereignty would have to be reclaimed, by force if necessary: “There can be no perfect Europe in which Ireland is denied even the least of its national rights; there can be no worthy Ireland whose children brook tamely such denial. If such denial has been accepted by soulless slaves of politicians then it must be repudiated by Irish men and women whose souls are still their own. … A destiny not of our fashioning has chosen this generation as the one called upon for the supreme act of self-sacrifice – to die if need be that our race might live in freedom.”
For the previous Connolly quote in this location see A Word Of Conjure With.
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And The Cry Was “Keine Kapitulation”
The third (and surely not the final?) season of the popular UK drama Brexit is keeping people guessing. This week, it looks like Boris might betray the ever-loyal Arlene and agree a Northern Ireland-only backstop with EU before time runs out on October 31st. In Belfast, lower Shankill residents are not amused by this potential turn of events and have invoked the classic “No surrender!” catch-phrase from 1688’s Siege Of Derry, painted on the wall between the security gates dividing Catholic and Protestant west Belfast. (Just kidding, of course; this is serious stuff. But the twists and turns are worthy of a telenovela. As Belfasters have always said, “If you’re not confused, you don’t know what’s going on.”)
Other recent messages below the Imagine mural: Victory To Isreal | Your Wall, Your Border
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Wall On Wall
The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 but dividing walls all over the world still stand. Kai Wiedenhöfer’s Wall On Wall exhibition comes to Belfast later in the month (the launch is September 27th at 4 pm), placing images of dividing walls on Belfast’s own dividing wall, the Cupar Way “peace” line. Shown above is the image of the wall in Al Bayya (Baiyya) in the Al Rashid district, part of the 700 km of walls in Baghdad, Iraq (Browse Gallery), which was pasted onto the “peace” line as a trial for the forthcoming exhibition. As usual, it has been vandalised by tourists and their patronising slogans (and political statements: “Hong Kong is doesn’t have to be a part of China!”). Wiedenhöfer’s image of the Occupied Territories was on Free Derry Corner in 2013 (see Ramallah, Israeli City Of Culture) and three images of Belfast were pasted onto the Berlin Wall in 2013 (Irish Times).
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Same Difference
Photographer Stephen Wilson’s exhibition ‘Same Difference’ shows images from two churches only 100 metres apart on the Donegall Street – the Catholic St Patrick’s (web) and the Protestant Redeemer Central (web).
The photographs, and images of them on display in the two churches, can be seen at the exhibition’s web page.
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Morpeth Street, Ulster
The “Ulster” street sign is partially obscured by all of the streamers but the decorations leave no doubt as to the allegiance of this householder to the UK.
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 