“North Belfast stands with Fiona [Donohoe]”. This is a shrine to Noah Donohoe and rallying post in the campaign for answers as to how he was found dead in a storm drain near Northwood Road six days after going missing.
The hashtags include #RememberMyNoah and #NoToPII (see No More PSNI Cover Ups).
Waterworks, north Belfast.
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Eight-time hunger-striker Sylvia Pankhurst and the East London Federation Of The Suffragettes [ELFS] provided a cost-price restaurant to provide meals to the poor in the “Women’s Hall” at the back of the house at 400 Old Ford Road in response to the inflation in food prices at the onset of WWI (Inspiring City | East End Women’s Museum).
In the top left, with the “Votes For Women” sign, is Christabel Pankhurst, one of Sylvia’s sisters, a co-founder of the Women’s Social And Political Union – motto “Deeds, not words” – and editor of The Suffragette. (Charlotte Despard – recorded separately – was also a member of the WSPU.)
(The third sister, Adela, was founder of the WSPU’s yet more radical sub-group the ‘Young Hot Bloods’ (WP). Their mother was Emmeline Pankhurst, who had founded the WSPU in 1903 (WP); she is featured in a mural on Belfast’s Donegall Road bridge – see Those Days Are Over.)
In the top right (shown in close-up in the third image), Sylvia speaks in 1912 from a small platform outside the WPSU office in Bow Road, before the WSPU and ELFS split in 1914.
The mural is by Ketones6000 (ig) in 2018 on the side of the Lord Morpeth pub which was frequented by Pankhurst and the east London suffragettes (web). The pub is at 402 Old Ford Road and the mural thus overlooks the site of the women’s hall.
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Copyright © 2011 Peter Moloney
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A Ukrainian woman in Heniches’k (just north of Crimea) (video with subtitles) became famous for berating an invading Russian soldier with the words “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow here when you all die here.” Ukraine is the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil (WP) and since the Russian invasion began on February 24th, prices have increased – so far – by about 70% (Money Control), sending countries (especially India – Reuters | Bloomberg) and companies around the globe scrambling for alternatives, such as the replacement of sunflower oil by rapeseed oil in the making of crisps in Ireland (The Journal). The sunflower has become a symbol of solidarity with Ukraine, along with the Ukrainian flag. This giant sunflower was painted by emic (web | ig) in Harrow Street.
Update: added to the side wall “Ar scáth a chéıle a mhaıreann na daoıne”, here translated as “People live in each other’s shadows.” See the images in the Paddy Duffy collection.
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“Be smart, don’t start” – taking drugs, that is. This is a recent mural on the Falls Road, Belfast, with nine panels that discourage youth from taking drugs, alternately by reminding them of their dangers (including death – “Drugs can thrill but they also kill.” “I’m dying to meet you.” “If you dance with the devil you remain in hell.” “Don’t let drugs ruin something beautiful.” “Don’t get trapped by drugs.”) and providing support in persevering through dark times (“There is always light beyond the darkness.”
“We all have a choice in life.” “Hugs not drugs.” “Always remember you’re never alone.” “Try to be leader not a follower.”)
With support from Belfast City Council, Divis Youth Project, Greater Falls Neighbourhood Partnership, Falls Partnership Initiative (Falls Residents).
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Chaplin’s first “talkie” was The Great Dictator in 1940, a satirical condemnation of Hitler (Adenoid Hynkel) and Mussolini (Benzino Napaloni). Towards the end, the Jewish barber impersonates Hynkel and gives a speech (youtube) in favour of liberty and democracy:
“To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed. The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish. [Soldiers, don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder.] Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men with with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! [You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate. Only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers, don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” – not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power – the power to create machines, the power to create happiness!] You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. [Then, in the name of democracy,] let us use that power. Let us all unite!”
India Street, Belfast, replacing the murals of George Michael and Prince.
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Today’s images come from London but there is an Irish and a Belfast connection. Charlotte Despard was a novelist, suffragist, socialist, pacifist, vegetarian, and Sınn Féın advocate in the years around the Lock Out, the Rising, and the War Of Independence.
She moved from London – where she worked to alleviate poverty among the children of the Battersea area – to Dublin after WWI and was classed as a “dangerous subversive” by the Irish Free State. The image above (which is a panel from a mural celebrating political radicals of Battersea, below) reproduces a photograph of Despard addressing the crowd at an anti-fascist/Communist rally in Trafalgar Square on June 11th, 1933 – four days before her 89th birthday.
At the end of a very long of activism, she moved to Whitehead, County Antrim, where she died in 1939, and was buried in Glasnevin (WP).
A Battersea street is named after her – Charlotte Despard Avenue; the plaque is at 177 Lavender Hill – the offices of the Labour Party in Battersea.
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Copyright © Peter Moloney
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Night falls over Free Derry Corner and temperatures head down, reaching freezing before dawn this morning. To heat your home with oil currently costs roughly 460 pounds or 500 euro for a delivery of 500 litres in the area (Derry Journal). In Belfast, prices have increased 36% in two months (Belfast Live). The council characterises a household as suffering “fuel poverty” if it spends more than 10% of its income on home fuel (Derry & Strabane). To protest and demand action, the group Derry Against Fuel Poverty (Fb) is holding its second rally this afternoon at 4 p.m. in Waterloo Place.
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Copyright © 2022 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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Crossed arms are the symbol of the #BreakTheBias campaign, which is the theme of this year’s International Women’s day (IWD) and people all around the world are striking the pose on social media to show their support (e.g. tw) including this large mural in Belfast, which has been painted off Corporation Street.
By Visual Waste (web | ig), with support from Children In Crossfire (web) (see previously Derry Lama).
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“Women are a whole community – within her is the ability to create and strengthen and transform”. The mural is part of the ‘Communities in transition’ programme from Factory Women’s Group/Factory Community Forum (web | Fb), along with the ‘Be Aware’ mephedone campaign.
Lower Waterloo Street, Larne, formerly Factory Row, site of Brown’s weaving mill.
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“Be aware: Mephedrone is destroying our community. Prescription drug misuse is the biggest killer. Stop mephedrone before it stops you. How to spot the signs and save a life.” Mephedrone has been classified as a Class B drug since 2010 but it and other (still-legal prescription) drugs continue to take a heavy toll. According to the 2020 NIAO report, a majority of drug-related deaths involved prescription drugs such as diazepam, tramadol, and pregabalin. The two boards shown in today’s post are in Larne (Lower Waterloo Road, above, and Drumahoe Gardens, below).
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 