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.
A new mural on Colinview Street/Sráıd Radharc Chollan celebrates local sports: first (shown above) is the Clonard water polo club (Fb), second (in the wide shot, below) is Ryan Devine of Anderstonstown Trampoline Club, junior sportsman of the year, 2014 (Fb), and third, Clonard GAA. The mural is on the side wall of The Flush newsagents, near the former location (above ground) of the Farset and Forth rivers, where dams and races were put in to supply a cotton mill and linen mill and, later, a laundry, a hat-makers, and a biscuit factory. The river, flowing south, then became the Blackie in Beechmount. (Information gleaned from the Belfast Forum).
The final image below is the cartoon for the water polo part of mural, which was begun back in February.
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.
Charles, Prince Of Wales, Duke Of Rothesay, Duke Of Cornwall, and heir to the British throne, concludes a four-day visit to Ireland north and south today with a tour of Corrymeela peace and reconciliation centre. He is also colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment (the Paras) which served in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007. Flyers have appeared protesting the visit (see the two images below), and The Rebels Rest on the Falls road is flying the banner shown above: “Fund communities, not royal visits – éırígí.org”. Éırígí also produced a video in memory of some of those killed by the Regiment during its time in Northern Ireland.
The Sınn Féın board to the left is from their campaign to extend voting in the Irish Presidential election to the north: “Vótaí do gach saoránach Éireannach”, “Paul Maskey supports #pres4all – Uachtarán do chách/President for all”
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.
Here are panels 8, 5, 6, and 7 from the Patterson board featured in Operation Lion. The final panel shows the star of David and a quote from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “In all of Jewish history we have never had a Christian friend as understanding and devoted.” The interim panels described Patterson’s raising and leading of the Jewish battalions of the Royal Fusiliers in WWI. After dying in obscurity in Los Angeles in 1947, his remains were transported to Israel in December 2014 and re-interred (video). For more, including a recording of Patterson’s voice, see this BBC Magazine article.
Video of the launch:
The plaque to the right asks viewers to “please respect this artwork” but a fire was set below it in 2016; see Where Is The Reconciliation?
Here are the first four of eight images (plus one wide shot) of the new Patterson memorial at the junction of Northumberland and Beverly Streets. As the text on the board describes, Patterson went from Ireland to Kenya, where he killed several lions after months of hunting. He wrote an account of the hunt ‘The Man-Eaters of Tsavo’ which has inspired three movies; the lions, named The Ghost and The Darkness, were both over nine feet in length. Back in Ireland he commanded a battalion of the UVF and was involved in the Larne gun-running of 1914: Operation Lion.
The hunger strikers tarp has been removed from the Ard Eoın memorial garden (see 2013) and the forty portraits have been moved over from the mural on Ardoyne Avenue after the plaster fell off (see one | two).
However, the two long-standing pieces remain the same. As can be seen in the image below, the cross goes back to 1976. “This garden of remembrance was unveiled by Nora Connolly O’Brien, daughter of James Connolly, Easter Tuesday 1976. It is dedicated to the memory of Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann and Fıanna Éıreann volunteers, Sınn Féın, and members of our community who lost lives since 1969. ‘Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.’ In loving memory of all from the Ardoyne, Bone and Ligoniel who died because of Ireland’s troubles.”
Above, the phoenix is used as a symbol of resistance in one of the oldest memorial plaques in Belfast (1993) with the names of deceased IRA volunteers and locals: “Oft from prison bars, oft from battle flashes/Oft from heroes’ lip, oftenest from their ashes.”
Who could resist this beaming smile and lilac knitwear? Communion portrait as street art, taking the place of Ian Jong-Un in Hill Street and (below) beneath the Potthouse plaque in Commercial Court.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 