painted wall

Saoırse Go Deo

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Saturday will be the 51st anniversary of Michael Devine’s death, the last of the ten strikers to die in the 1981 strike. This mural was painted last year during lockdown for the 50th anniversary.

“Vol Mickey Devine, Derry Brigade, INLA. In memory of Michael Devine “Red Micky” H-Block martyr, died 20th August 1981 after 60 days without food. Remembered with pride by his family, friends and comrades. ‘They have served their British masters, the poor pathetic fools, they think that inhumanity and cruelty can break us, haven’t they learnt anything? It strengthens us, it drives us on for then more than ever we know that our cause is just’ – Micky Devine”

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Bond’s Field

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Although only Bond’s Place now retains the apostrophe, all of the “Bond” placenames in the Waterside (Bond’s Place, Bonds/Bond’s Street and Bonds/Bond’s Hill) are named after the Bond family, one of whom – William – was a United Irishman (Derry Journal). Bond’s Field is the site of the former Ebrington factory – home to Young & Rochesters shirt factory (Smart Tour) – and now part of the Ebrington complex (Scrivener). Four other Ebrington institutions are included in this Ebrington Street mural: Ebrington Primary school (web) which was originally at the end of Roulston Avenue, Ebrington Presbyterian (web), the Waterside branch of the Royal British Legion (Fb), and (in the centre) Pages bakery, which is now the Ebrington Bake House (Fb).

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Believe In Your Dreams

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Here is a complete set of images from the Bogside end of the Brandywell. From left to right: “Nasc” by NOYS (ig) for Gasyard Féıle 2022, Long Tower Community Centre (see Brandywell Past And Present), a new “Brandywell” stencil by Peaball (ig), the Ryan McBride Foundation (web), a new version of the Derry Brigade IRA mural (see previously Brıogáıd Dhoıre), Peaball and local youth at work, various pieces of wild-style writing and graffiti in support of Jason Ceulemans.

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The Global Order

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There are Orange Order lodges in Ghana and Togo and there were previously lodges in South Africa and Nigeria (History Ireland | WP). A photo of the Ghanaian representative in the mural – Dennis Tette Tay – is included in this BBC article. The Canadian representative is perhaps from “Mohawk Loyal Orange Lodge No. 99” on the Mohawk Reservation at Desoronto, Ontario, Canada (Fb).

Vandalised with “KAH” and “UDA scum!” graffiti.

The Fountain, Londonderry

Update: The cleaned-up board in February of 2023 can be seen in the Paddy Duffy collection.

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Cuımhníonn Doıre

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For many years there were portraits of the hunger strikers (either the 10 deceased from 1981 or the 12 from the 70s and 80s) along the long wall in Bishop St Without – see 2009, 2004, and 1998 (before that time the wall was divided into a number of panels for a variety of republican imagery – see 1984 and 1982) but in the portraits – which were on boards – soon started coming off and over the next decade the wall began to fade and become covered in graffiti (as can be seen in Street View). For the 40th anniversary, the deceased hunger strikers were restored to the wall, as shown here: “40th anniversary of the 1980-1981 hunger strikes. Rededication of mural, by the Bogside and Brandywell Monument Committee.”

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Peace If Possible, Truth At All Costs

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“Londonderry west bank loyalists” are “still under siege”, at first from two decades of “Republican violence” – “Between 1971 and 1991 the Protestant population of the Cityside declined by 83.4% as a result of Republican violence (Shirlow et al. 2005)” – hence the boarded- and dressed-up windows – and now from the “PSNI”.

(The words “as a result of Republican violence” are not included in the Shirlow article).

Fountain Street and Hawkin Street, in the Fountain, Londonderry.

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I Was Sick And Ye Visited Me

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A gallery of faces from KVLR (ig) in Exchange Place, perhaps on their way to Belfast’s first maternity hospital, the Humane Female Society For The Relief Of Lying-In Women (Clifton House). “The Entries are passageways for the comings and goings of rich and poor, sugar and coal, horses and handcarts, porter and print, secrets and songs. Openings and entrances over the centuries. A labyrinth of muck-made Belfast brick at the mouth of the Farset.”

The in-progress shots are from June.

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You Beaut

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North Street Arcade was burned down in April 2004 – see Who Burnt Us Out?. Since 2012, there has been street art at both its North Street and Donegall Street ends, the latest (from September, 2021) being this piece by Danni Simpson (ig) in Donegall St.

For the girl with owl left over from the previous Matt Sewell street art, see Only When The Dusk Starts To Fall (along with A Bird In The Hand and Carnival Of The Animals).

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