painted wall

The Ultimate Sacrifice

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2014-08-25 BallyduffMemorialFrontLeft+

“They paid the ultimate sacrifice”. The UVF/YCV mural above on a Ballyduff electrical station shows WWI soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division in relief against an orange sky (perhaps “at the going down of the sun”), picking their way across the battlefields of Flanders. The Ulster Memorial at Thiepval, which commemorates the 5,000 lost lives and more specifically the role of Orange Order members, is shown in the top left corner of the smaller wall. A plaque, hidden behind the low wall to the right but shown below in close-up, indicates sponsorship from the UVF “1st East Antrim Battalion, Ballyduff & Glengormley”.

2014-08-25 BallyduffMemorialPlaque+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02111 X02113 at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them for god and ulster lest we forget 1914-1916 1918

#Gaza

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2014-08-21 #GazaDetail+

A young woman dressed in the red, black, and green of Palestine secures her keffiyeh, preparing for defiance rather than expressing her modesty – a detail from a new mural in Balfour Avenue (shown below) with a graffitist in a red-and-white keffiyeh (the colours of the PFLP – see previously: The Popular Front) writing “Free Palestine”. An ‘anti-fascist action’ flag flies in the background.

Previously: Leila Khaled wearing a keffiyeh – traditionally a male garment – in the style of a hijab – a woman’s garment (WP).

2014-08-21 #Gaza+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02101 X02100 antifaschistische aktion

A True Red

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2014-08-21 MarketsCliftonville+

Here is a mural in the Markets area of south Belfast celebrating the achievements of local boy George McMullen, who played youth football for St. Malachy’s and St. Matthew’s before joining Cliftonville in 2011 age 20.

On the left is the familiar Cliftonville huddle (see previously: The Red Army). The two poses in the centre and on the left are reproductions of Belfast Telegraph images. The first is from Cliftonville’s 2013 Dankse Bank Irish League-clinching win over Linfield, which the Reds won with a McMullen penalty in the dying seconds; the second in from the same moment in the 2014 campaign: Chris Curran has just scored to put the Reds two-nil up in a game against Portadown that would win them the League for the second year in succession.

Other Cliftonville players have been featured in murals: Joe The Goal in Ardyone and Rory Donnelly in the Bone.

Below is a shot of the piece in development and below that is a wide shot showing the mural’s location adjacent to the End The Siege On Gaza mural.

2014-08-08 MarketsCliftonville+

2014-08-08 MarketsWide+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02102 X02056 X02060 mallachy’s mcnally o’kane murray boyce gormley stats to date 2014 485 first team appearances 96 goals scored the penalty against linfield to win the irish league

Mıse Éıre/I Am Ireland

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2014-08-18 NewLodgeCLG+

The local New Lodge GAA club Cumman An Phıarsaıgh is named in honour of Patrick Pearse, executed after the 1916 rising. The club’s new mural features footballers contesting a ball and Pearse’s image appears at the centre of a celtic cross along with part of his 1912 poem Mıse Éıre in the bottom corner (shown below in a close-up). Painted by Lucas Quigley and Michael Doherty. Replaces New Lodge 2000.

Mıse Éıre: Sıne mé na an Chaılleach Bhéarra.
Mór mo ghlóır: Mé a rug Cú Chulaınn croga.
Mór mo náır: Mo chlann féın a dhíol a máthaır.
[Mór mo phıan: Bıthnaımhde do mo shíorchıapadh.
Mór mo bhrón: D’éag an dream ınar chuıreas dóchas.]
Mıse Éıre: Uaıgní mé ná an Chaılleach Bhéarra.

I am Ireland: I am older than the old woman of Beare.
Great my glory: I who bore Cuchulainn, the brave.
Great my shame: My own children who sold their mother.
[Great my pain: My irreconcilable enemy who harasses me continually.
Great my sorrow: That crowd, in whom I placed my trust, died.]
I am Ireland: I am lonelier than the old woman of Beare.

2014-08-18 NewlodgeCLGScroll+

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1951 X02091 X02092 New Lodge Road

Building An Ireland Of Equals

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The aspect of Cave Hill commonly known as Napoleon’s Nose is shown sheltering the people of Newington, surrounded by heroes and emblems of the past – Bobby Sands, Wolfe Tone, and in the centre, Winifred Carney. This republican mural is both internally directed (at Newington and the New Lodge) and externally, being on the main Antrim Road (Oceanic avenue, on the side of the Sınn Féın office) which is a main artery between the city and points north.

“Ag aontú Caıtlıceach, Protastúnach agus Easaontóırí.” – “Uniting Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter.” In An Argument On Behalf Of The Catholics Of Ireland (1791), Wolfe Tone of the United Irishmen wrote, “To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country, these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman, in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, these were my means.”

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Scotland’s Burden

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2014-08-17 AlbainEire+

The mural above pairs the emblem of Celtic – a Scottish team – with a former emblem of the FAI – the governing body for the Republic’s national team (and, at the time this mural was painted (2002 according to CAIN), league football in the South). Celtic shoulders the footballing dreams of many Northern Ireland nationalists, which is perhaps why, below the flags of Scotland and Ireland, what should be “Albain agus Éıre” is in fact “Albaın agus eıre”: Scotland and a burden.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02084 club 1888 friendly street saltire association ireland

At The Pass

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2014-08-11 UVFDonegallPass+

South Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force 2nd Battalion “A” Company Donegall Pass, with the flag of England (St. George’s Cross) in one corner and in the other an orange star with “1912” written below, the year the Ulster Volunteers were founded. The colour-scheme is the reverse of the Orange Order’s: its flag has the purple star of the Williamites on an orange field.

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X02073

Scaırt Amach

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2014-08-09 ScairtAmach+

Scaırt Amach (“Shout Out”) is a magazine containing articles by republican prisoners in Portlaoise, Maghaberry, and Hydebank prisons. The cover is reproduced in the mural above on the International Wall.

Replaces the black-and-white ‘End Internment’ mural and between Where Is The World? and The Sagart.

2014-08-09 ScairtAmachStencil+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02069 X02070 Voice Irish Welfare Association

100 Years Apart

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2014-08-09 DonegallPass2013+

Visible from the Ormeau Road, this large union flag greets visitors to Donegall Pass in the south of the city. It asserts the presence of the UVF and connects the original Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913 to the present-day group one hundred years later: the aim of the original UVF was to resist the impending rule by Catholics under Home Rule.

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X02062 2013