When it was launched in September 2018 (Irish Times), the Irish Freedom Party (web) found some support in at least one north Belfast stencilist. But murals and graffiti that don’t meet with universal approval draw public replies: “Irexit … is a shite ideology perpetuated by fascists. My 32 counties doesn’t do racism. No pasaran!”
Máirtín Ó Dochartaigh, one of the founders of Club Óıge Mhachaıre Botháın in 2001, died in 2011. The club was renamed in his honour in ?2020? as Cumann Óıge Uí Dhochartaıgh (Fb | ig) (An Phoblacht). The mural, bearing the original name of the club, dates back to 2012.
Mairéad Farrell (on the right of the image above) was arrested for planting a bomb at a hotel in Dunmurry in April 1976, one month after Special Category Status for republican prisoners had been revoked. Kieran Nugent (on the left) began the “blanket” protest in September that year and Farrell was the first person to join the protest, when she arrived in Armagh women’s prison to begin her fourteen year sentence. She later took up a dirty protest and joined the 1980 hunger strike. She stood for election in 1981 (in Cork), but, unlike “Óglach Bobby Sands, MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone”, was not successful. (WP)
“I am oppressed as a woman and I am oppressed as an Irish person. Everyone in this country is oppressed and yet we can only end our oppression as women if we end the oppression of our nation as a whole.” Máiread [sic] Farrell
Here are images from Sailortown of the Rotterdam and Pat’s, back to back in Pilot Street and Princes Dock Street, both boarded up well before pandemic closures.
“For a united working class”. Football Lads And Lasses (Fb | web) is an organisation headed by former football hooligans against fascism and racism (BBC video). There are different stickers for dozens of English soccer clubs; this West Ham one has found itself on a light-pole on the Antrim Road in Belfast. Above it is a Lasaır Dhearg (web) sticker decrying imperialism as the cause of climate change.
“A new Ireland will work for you”, whoever you are. The recent Sınn Féın advertising campaign features generic figures straight from central casting, perhaps designed to offend absolutely no one. The locations are in north and west Belfast.
“‘Anyone who goes to Mary and prays the Rosary cannot be touched by Satan’ – Fr. Gabriel Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican”. According to Wikipedia, Amorth performed “tens of thousands” of exorcisms during his lifetime, though notes that people can be possessed by more than one demon at a time, which inflates the numbers. His favorite film, naturally enough, was The Exorcist. (WP)
“Good night, white pride” is an anti-fascist slogan/meme (and Loikaemie song) endorsed by antifa and the “ultra” fan club of FC St Pauli: “In Hamburg nur wir! Auf zum derby!” [Only us in Hamburg. Off to the derby [with Hamburger SV]]. The lobster is perhaps an appropriation of Jordan Peterson’s use of the lobster as an analogy supporting natural social hierarchies. Get in touch if you can explain.
Hearts are painted on the ground outside Seaview Primary School, 2 metres apart, so that children can maintain physical distance from one another when lining up.
The fourth review of evidence in the case of Noah Donohoe, in preparation for a later coroner’s inquest, is scheduled to take place on January 18th (Belfast Live). Friends, family, and concerned members of the public are continuing their campaign for answers, using the hashtag #NoahsArmy on Twitter. The sign shown above is on the top floor of Teach Mhéabh (Maeve House) in the New Lodge.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 