Shared Space

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03706 2016-08-03 IntWall2016 Public Meeting+

In addition to the defacing of Carson (see We Won’t Have Carson), a 32 County Sovereignty Movement mural remains about a quarter of the way along the newly repainted International Wall on Divis Street. (And as is covered in a separate entry, an IRPWA POW mural was in progress at the far right end of the wall.)

We understand that the painters offered to repaint the 32CSM mural after the historical mural had been in place for six months, but that this offer was turned down. For the purposes of the launch, then, a cloth sign, was hung over the 32CSM mural (as seen in the image above). It reproduces a poster (see the original) advertising “a public meeting for the formation of Irish Volunteers”; Eoin MacNeill, author in November 1913 of ‘The North Began’, presided at the meeting – here is the text of The North Began – and the newspaper carried by the hawker on the left reads “MacNeill successful in call for Irish Volunteers” (whereas it originally read “Rotunda rally – Irish volunteers now exceed 180,000” as can be seen in the Carson post). However, this cloth was removed immediately after the launch, meaning that the wall appears as in the image below.

03693 2016-08-01 IntWall2016 32CSM GunRunning+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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HMS Hawke

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03700 2016-08-02 HMS Hawke+

HMS Hawke was a Royal navy WWI cruiser sunk by German U-boat on October 1st, 1914. It was a training ship, which meant that among the 542 sailors who lost their lives on the Hawke, 75 of them were 16 year-old boys.

Five of the deceased were from the Donegall Road area. This is the first mural in south Belfast’s “Poppy Trail”; in addition to the Hawke, there will be a board for each year of the first world war, and perhaps others for WWII, on the streets off Donegall Road, from Barrington Gardens westward across into the Village.

03698 2016-08-02 HMS Hawke info+

03699 2016-08-02 HMS Hawke l+

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X03700 X03698 X03699 Barrington Gardens crawford dawson mills molloy thompson

Raising The Flag

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03694 2016-08-01 IntWall2016 1916+

For the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, the whole of the International Wall on Divis Street (or, almost the whole wall, as will be explained in a subsequent post) has been repainted to depict a history of Irish republicanism, with special attention given to connections to Belfast.

As might be expected, a panel of the new mural depicts the GPO of 1916. A Tricolour is thought to have been raised over the Henry Street corner of the GPO by Liverpudlian Joe Gleeson – he sports a Liver bird badge on his bandolier – though he does not mention this in his statement to the Bureau of Military History: “We started out from Kimmage about 60 strong at about ten o’clock that Easter Monday morning …”. (A flag of the Irish Republic was raised by Harry Walpole (Irish Times) or Eamon Bulfin (Collins 22 Society, which states that Gearóıd O’Sullivan raised the Tricolour; Bulfin’s statement to the BMH says Gleeson did so).) Gleeson was one of 50 fighters from the Liverpool Irish Volunteers. (Caırde Liverpool has the names of 38 volunteers from Merseyside; this BBC article contains photographic portraits of a number.) The image here is a modified version of the 1941 stamp designed by Victor Brown showing an armed volunteer outside the GPO (stampboards).

The Belfast connection in this panel is supplied by Winifred Carney, member of Cumann Na mBan, assistant to James Connolly from 1912 until the Rising, and part of the occupying forces in the GPO during the rising, “armed with a typewriter and a Webley” (according to her WP page). She is seen here (on the right, beneath the flag) typing up communications by candlelight in the GPO.

03675 2016-07-23 IntWall2016 1916 prog+

03667 2016-07-20 IntWall2016 1916 cartoon+

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Take The Hint

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03695 2016-08-01 Take The Hint+

A deal to end the standoff at Twaddell Avenue, where an Orange Order parade was stopped in 2013, fell though a few days before the proposed July 1st march date (BelTel). The GARC (Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective) tarp shown above maps out an alternative route that would bypass the Ardoyne shops.

Replaces Putting The Boot In.

03696 2016-08-01 Take The Hint Map+

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X03695 X03696 Ardoyne Avenue

The Poppy Trail 1914

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03692 2016-07-31 The Poppy Trail+

 “The first Belfast men in action were not those who volunteered after the war’s outbreak. Instead, they were the regular soldiers already in the army, or reservists who were called up as war began. A battalion which contained a large number of Belfast regulars and reservists was the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles. Since it was not part of the 16th or 36th divisions, the battalion drew men from across Belfast’s communities.” Thus begins the 1914 board on south Belfast’s “Poppy Trail” launched on February 29th. The 1914 board, in Egeria Street, features the stories of Lance Corporal Samuel Spratt (from Lecale Street, off the Donegall Road) who died at Neuve Chappelle in August 1914 and Corporal Michael McGivern (from Merrion Street, off the Falls Road) who died at Kemmel in December.

See also: interviews from the launch on NVTv (starting at 13m44s)

03691 2016-07-31 Poppy Trail 1914+

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X03692 X03691 Egeria Street sharedhistoryworkshop.com housing executive signtech imperial war museum kitchener your country needs you

Where Is The Reconciliation?

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03690 2016-07-30 Historically Significant Artwork+

A fire was lit at the base of the John Henry Patterson mural (see Operation Lion | Godfather Of The Israeli Army) on Beverley Street, prompting the notice on the railings above: “Where is the equality? This historically significant artwork, was attacked & defaced by Irish Republican racists? Where is the reconciliation?”

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Always British

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03684 2016-07-25 Cluan Place 12th+

Here are three images from Cluan Place, the PUL street at the bottom of the (CNR) Short Strand in east Belfast. The first two show the flags and bunting in the street, flying from railings, light-poles, and chimney pots. In the third image, crosses have been added to the board at the entrance to the street featured previously Hard Hats Must Be Worn.

03685 2016-07-25 Cluan Place 12th 2+

03321 2016-03-07 Cluan Place Crosses+

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X03684 X03685 X03321 5 people shot houses burnt houses bombed 20 families intimidated out by sinn fein/IRA still loyalist no surrender

Generations Of Health

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03676-2016-07-24-5-women

These two murals of five women and five babies at the rear of the Maureen Sheehan health care centre are entering (at least) their eighth year of existence and are showing their wear due to both the natural and human causes, such as graffiti and burning (see previously: A Philosophy of Liberation). For the murals in better condition (in 2010) see M05732 and M05733.

03677-2016-07-24-5-babies

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