Republican graffiti in Meenan Square, Derry hearkening back to a 1970s poster (revived earlier in 2016 in this Belfast poster on the International Wall) cautioning people against undercover British agent and touts.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The night before he was executed for his part in the Easter Rising, republican leader James Connolly (5.6.1888-12.5.1916) penned a brief statement calling the British presence in Ireland “a usurpation and a crime against human progress” and declaring “The British government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, never can have any right in Ireland”. Here are two images of Free Derry corner with Connolly’s quote, including The Petrol Bomber by the Bogside Artists and and “SFRY” (Sinn Féin Republican Youth) banner on the railings.
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X03602 X03601 lecky rd
Charter NI chief executive Dee Stitt returned to work after a three-week holiday following controversial remarks that a Bangor flute band (the North Down Defenders) provided “homeland security” for the area and that he was the big man in the area. (The remarks were included in this Guardian video, starting at 7m 22s. For more on the UDA in north Down, see this Tele article.)
Many have called for his resignation, including Jeffrey Donaldson of the DUP (Irish News), though the Charter NI board, who conducted an internal review, did not fire him. At least one of the local people in east Belfast was already unhappy with the organization this summer, when the graffiti above was sprayed in Beechfield Street.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03598 NI Executive “managed” September and not “controlled” November
Voters (finally!) go to the polls today in the much-discussed “Brexit” referendum. Opinion on the nationalist side is split – the image above advises “leave” “for independence, for democracy, for freedom, for Europe, for peace” while in the third image the poster is pro-remain with the suggestion that “We’re better off in.” In between, a poster in a loyalist area alleges that “We send the EU £50 million every day — let’s spend that on our NHS instead.”
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03542 [X03515] X03541 X03543 [also X03669] whiterock rd twaddell ave clondara st james connolly nora connolly obrien british government has no right in ireland éırígí
Martin McGuinness waits, with hand outstretched, to greet a smiling Queen Elizabeth who strides towards him carrying a bloodied axe and wearing a Union flag apron spattered with the blood of people from Ireland, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Mural in Beechmount reproducing a 2012 Latuff cartoon.
Update: 2016-06-21 The figures have been blotted out, by Sınn Féın, alleges the IRPWA.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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In a lay-by just off Montrose Street: a Union Flag and St. Andrew’s Saltire.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A boy in blue and girl in green, from opposite communities in east Belfast, shake hands against the backdrop of the Harland & Wolff cranes. The poem “No More” in the middle of the mural is by community worker Jim Wilson, whose grandson Dylan is shown on the left. A smaller version of this mural, without the poem, is in Short Strand’s Edgar Street – see No More.
No more bombing, no more murder
No more killing of our sons
No more standing at the grave side
Having to bury our loved ones
No more waking up every hour
Hoping our children, they come home
No more maimed or wounded people
Who have suffered all alone
No more minutes to leave a building
No more fear of just parked cars
No more looking over our shoulders
No more killing in our bars
No more hatred from our children
No more. No more. No more!
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03412 X03411 kenilworth pl dove peace
A Union Flag and St Andrew’s Saltire tucked away in Montrose Street, Belfast, cul-de-sac.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues” — commentary on the “Brexit” vote, coming up on June 23rd, from the Tiger’s Bay community in north Belfast, likening the EU to Babylon — “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth”, “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird”, “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” — whose destruction is prophesied in the book of Revelation. Hence: “Vote Leave E.U.”.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03381 n. queen st bible revelation rev 18:4 whore of babylon sin corruption
Connolly House – Belfast headquarters of Sınn Féın – for the centenary of the Easter Rising bears the same banner as flew on the ITGWU’s Liberty Hall (in Dublin) during the first world war (see image below) until the building was destroyed during the Rising: We serve neither king nor kaiser, but Ireland! The house was purchased by Sınn Féın in 1983 and brought to its current condition in 2007 (Irish Times).
For a previous appearance of the slogan, on the shirts of a Glasgow flute band, see Business As Usual.
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X03361 andersonstown road
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 