Facelift

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The Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street has been given a facelift, including the blocking-up of a vent on Sands’s left cheek. Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell have been added in place of the 1798 medallions on each side. On the side-wall are Sean McCaughey, ten doves representing the 1981 hunger-strikers, and Long Kesh. Aerosol‘s accordion-player stencil has been also been retained.

For a full history of the wall, see the Bobby Sands (Sevastopol Street) Visual History page.

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Ag sráıd Sevastopol cuımhnıtear ar Bobby Sands ı múrmhaısıú a aithnıtear ar fud an domhaın. Ba scrıbhneoır, file, réabhlóıdí agus díograıseoır Gaeılge é Sands. Fuaır sé bas 5 Bealtaıne 1981 tar éıs 66 lá ar stailc ocraıs. As ucht na dıograıse a thaıspeáın Sands agus a chomhchımí ı leıth fhoglaım na teanga faoı choınníollacha uafásacha Bhlocanna H na Ceıse Fada, spreagadh glúın úr chun dul ı mbun athghabháıl na Gaeılge.

Here at Sevastopol Street Bobby Sands is remembered in a mural which has become world-renowned. Sands, a writer, poet, revolutionary and Gaelic enthusiast, died on May 5th 1981 after 66 days on hunger strike. Sands and his fellow prisoners inspired a new generation to reclaim the Irish language enthusing them by the huge efforts they put into learning Irish in the horrendous conditions on the H Blocks of Long Kesh.

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X02586 X02587 everyone Republican or otherwise has their own particular role to play our revenge will be the laughter of our children joe mcdonnell i’ll wear no convicts uniform nor meakly meekly serve my time that Britain might make Irelands fight 800 years of crime ira volunteer

Resistance

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This is a new (2015-04-04) tarp on Ardoyne Avenue showing a scene from Grafton Street in the Battle Of Dublin in the civil war (1922) (irishhistory.blogspot.com), with in-sets featuring PIRA volunteers on patrol in 1987 (BelTel), and a home-made rocket-launcher used in a 2014 attack on police (see, e.g. irishmirror.ie).

“There can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign, oppressive British presence is removed leaving all of the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically.” Bobby Sands (Prison Diary May 1st)

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An Raıbh Tú Ag An gCarraıg?

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“Were you at the rock?” A red-headed lass (from an illustration in the Weekly Freeman of December 19th, 1891, commemorating 1798) with a horn stands watch for others at a mass rock – a stone in a remote location for Catholic worship, made necessary by a Penal law of 1695 which forbade the religious practice of Catholicism and “dissenter” forms of Protestantism (that is, anything other than Anglicism) (source). The harp, with a “cap of liberty” rather than a crown (WP), together the slogan “Equality – It is new strung and it shall be heard” is the emblem of the Society of United Irishmen (WP). On the other side of the mural (seen below) linen lies in the fields bleaching and a farmer and wife plough the land with a team of horses and distribute seed.

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X02583 X02582 irish harp priest buckle shows welcome to glenbawn fáılte go gleann bán painted by Eithne Kane

A Word Of Conjure With

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James Connolly was concerned not just with the political independence of Ireland but its economic independence: both political and economic liberty were required in order for the human being to live freely. The quote in the image above comes from Connolly’s 1897 essay “Socialism & Nationalism”. The economic context is clear when we read a little more broadly:

“To the tenant farmer, ground between landlordism on the one hand and American competition on the other, as between the upper and the nether millstone; to the wage-workers in the towns, suffering from the exactions of the slave-driving capitalist to the agricultural labourer, toiling away his life for a wage barely sufficient to keep body and soul together; in fact to every one of the toiling millions upon whose misery the outwardly-splendid fabric of our modern civilisation is reared, the Irish Republic might be made a word to conjure with – a rallying point for the disaffected, a haven for the oppressed, a point of departure for the Socialist, enthusiastic in the cause of human freedom.” (marxists.org)

Takes the place of Padraig Pearse’s “The fools, the fools …“

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X02581 5th june 1868 – 12th may 1916

The Ulster Cycle

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“Ar aghaıdh linn [Onward]” Silhouetted figures, one carrying a hurley, take inspiration from a dying Cú Chulaınn and gaze across a body of water, perhaps Carlingford Lough towards the mountains of Mourne – Cú Chulaınn’s traditional place of death is in County Louth, outside Dundalk. Tuan the hawk historian, who has seen all of the conquests of Ireland, flies overhead.

Cú Chulaınn has his own Visual History page.

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Vótaí Do Gach Saoránach Éıreannach

“Paul Maskey supports votes for ALL Irish citizens.” Eligibility for voting in the Presidential election is based on eligibility for voting in Dáıl elections, which requires being a resident in a Dáıl constituency. As such, non-residents – whether in Northern Ireland or elsewhere – are not eligible. The matter was among those take up by the recent Constitutional Convention and a reply from the government is expected by the end of May (WP). Maskey is the incumbent for West Belfast in May’s Westminster election.

On the railings of the shuttered O’Connor’s/Rebel’s Rest, Falls Road, west Belfast

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Rest In Peace

The suicide of young people continue to cast a shadow over Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland. (The suicide rate has almost doubled since the ceasefire; a fifth of those dying are under 25.) Here are three images from west Belfast, two from Black Mountain – “RIP Caomhan” and “RIP Butts” where the lettering from “End Brit/S’Mont Cuts” (see Credit Union Limited) has been repurposed. “RIP Punk” is from the junction of the Whiterock and Springfield Roads.

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International Workers’ Day

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A new “historical wall feature” was unveiled by the Shared History Interpretive Project (SHIP) on the outside of the Dockers Club in Pilot Street in Sailortown. The new piece is a montage of about 60 images of vintage photographs, a census form, and posters of industrial life. In the top-middle (behind the lamppost) there can be seen an image of the board this one replaces, which featured two carters pulling away a heavy load, similar to the carter in the image above. Another addition in the new work is the inclusion of Billy McMullen (1888-1982) and John Quinn (1876-1935) alongside Winifred Carney (1887-1943), James Connolly (1868-1916), and Jim Larkin (1876-1947). Both McMullen and Quinn are Belfast trades unionists. Quinn’s headstone in Milltown Cemetery was featured previously, in Forgotten In Life, Remembered In Death. More information about all five, as well as photographs of dockers and of the unveiling, can be found at the SHIP web site.

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X02573 X02574 X02575 “Sharing more than a century of north Belfast’s industrial and maritime heritage” was officially unveiled on Friday 30th January 2015 by Jack O’Connor, General President “SIPTU” and Jimmy Kelly Irish regional secretary “Unite The Union” in the presence of Belfast’s First Citizen, Lord Mayor Councillor Nichola Mallon. Main sponsor Heritage Lottery Fund and generous support from Fyffes, United Molasses, Unite the Union, SIPTU, Unison. a fine fine meal gallaghers snuff itgwu obu the mission to seafarers elders travel liverpool park drive tall ships may day one big union itgwu irish transport general workers

The Hunting Heart

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Seamus Heaney was born on this date in 1939 on a farm in County London-/Derry. His first (full) collection was Death Of A Naturalist in 1966 and it included the poem Twice Shy, the concluding lines of which are painted on Stranmillis embankment: Still waters running deep along the embankment walk.

Painted by UUSU students (see also Animals Two By Two).

Belfast City Council report.

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