This new mural pays tribute to two long-time residents of Clonard. On a good day, Noel Fitzpatrick, a cobbler with a little shop on the corner of Odessa and Clonard streets, would take his chair out into the street and play the uıleann pipes. Looking down from above is Alec Reid, the Redemptorist priest who spent 40 years at Clonard monastery and played an important role in the peace process. He died in 2013 at age 82. (WP)
Painted by Marty Lyons & Mickey Doc in Springfield Drive. For the large ‘flower’ mural to the left of this mural (which imitates the stained glass in the cathedral), see C01044.
Prince Charles’s last day drew this respond from Gael Force Art on Sliabh Dubh/Black Mountain, “Remember Ballymurphy and Springhill 1971-1972”, a reference to the Ballymurphy Massacre of August 1971, in which 11 people died at the hands of the Prince’s Parachute Regiment (WP) and the Springhill-Westrock Massacre of July 1972, in which five people were killed by British army snipers (WP).
For more Republican reaction to the Prince’s visit last week, see Operation Banner.
In 1997, the office of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a statement acknowledging that the administration of the time of the Hunger failed to intervene (Guardian | Independent).
The mural above asserts that government’s inaction was not merely a matter of negligence but of will: “With over 1,500,000 deaths “sorry” is not enough. It is time the British government and its war machine to leave Ireland and her people in peace. During the genocide of 1845 to 1852 the British government seized from Ireland’s producers tens of millions of head of livestock, tens of millions of tons of flour, grain, meat, poultry and dairy products, enough food to sustain 18 million people. 200,000 British troops (100,000 at any given time) and 12,000 RIC removed Ireland’s food at gun point. This mural is dedicated to the men, women and children who died of starvation during the Great Hunger. To call this period in Irish history a famine dishonors the pain and untold suffering our ancestors endured. British warships took the food of our land for profit while our people starved. It was genocide. With this truth told may they rest in peace.”
Each white cross on the map represents a mass grave. The map is originally from irishholocaust.org.
The pikemen of 1798 go into battle under the flag of the United Irishmen in a detail from a new mural on the Falls Road for the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Below are work-in-progress images showing artists Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly and Bill Bradley.
Here’s a PUL mural in classic style, though not seen much of late: King William “Billy” III of Orange crosses the Boyne, sword drawn, on a white steed that walks on water. The crests of Scotland and Northern Ireland (labelled as “Ulster”) and the Scottish thistle and orange lily of the Orange Order fill out the quadrants.
On a barn wall in Ballycarry, County Antrim: a African youth (perhaps Ethiopian Mursi tribe) with painted face and a headdress of warthog tusk and aluminium coils. (By Liquid Colour Design – see also The Craic Is Mighty.)
Ballycarry village sits in County Antrim countryside surrounded by the townlands of Ballyhill, Redhall, Forthill, Blackhill, Aldfreck, Lochstown, Beltoy, Bentra. The large pale oval to the right of the picnickers is one of many “seeds” falling from the sky and settling into the earth, which by growing make Ballycarry a pleasant place: “I can see Scotland on a clear day”. The Mutton Burn Stream (lyrics | music from the Ulster-Scots agency) is a song written by Ballycarry resident William Hume (QUB) about the river to the north-west of the village (WP). More about Ballycarry from the BBC’s Ulster-Scots page.
Fiddling in the north of Ireland is common to both Nationalist and Unionist communities and the “old Antrim” style is influenced by Scottish playing (USFO).
The Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street has been given a facelift, including the blocking-up of a vent on Sands’s left cheek. Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell have been added in place of the 1798 medallions on each side. On the side-wall are Sean McCaughey, ten doves representing the 1981 hunger-strikers, and Long Kesh. Aerosol‘s accordion-player stencil has been also been retained.
Ag sráıd Sevastopol cuımhnıtear ar Bobby Sands ı múrmhaısıú a aithnıtear ar fud an domhaın. Ba scrıbhneoır, file, réabhlóıdí agus díograıseoır Gaeılge é Sands. Fuaır sé bas 5 Bealtaıne 1981 tar éıs 66 lá ar stailc ocraıs. As ucht na dıograıse a thaıspeáın Sands agus a chomhchımí ı leıth fhoglaım na teanga faoı choınníollacha uafásacha Bhlocanna H na Ceıse Fada, spreagadh glúın úr chun dul ı mbun athghabháıl na Gaeılge.
Here at Sevastopol Street Bobby Sands is remembered in a mural which has become world-renowned. Sands, a writer, poet, revolutionary and Gaelic enthusiast, died on May 5th 1981 after 66 days on hunger strike. Sands and his fellow prisoners inspired a new generation to reclaim the Irish language enthusing them by the huge efforts they put into learning Irish in the horrendous conditions on the H Blocks of Long Kesh.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 