The Human Condition

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2015-03-14 RightsChildren+

“The way a society treats children reflects not only its qualities of compassion & protective caring but also its sense of justice, its commitment to the future & its urge to enhance the human condition for coming generations.” Words by the United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez De Cuellar in 1987 inscribed on a mural by Margaret McCann and Andrea Redmond in Dunlewey Street in Clonard.

2015-03-14 RightsChildrenQuote+

2015-03-14 RightsChildrenSig+

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Credit Union Limited

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2015-03-14 EndBritSmontCutsWide1+

As wrangling over the Welfare Reform Bill continues (with the extra layer of difficulty that comes with politics in these parts), Gael Force Art (Fb) have unveiled their latest message on the mountain (Slıabh Dubh), in support of a strike on the 13th by public sector workers (BBC-NI): End Brit/S’mont Cuts.

See previously: No War But The Class War

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2015-03-14 EndBritSmontCuts+

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SDLP = NCA

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2015-03-09 SDLP+

Graffiti on the wall outside the Royal Victoria Hospital equates the SDLP with the NCA (below) and renames the it the “Security Directed Labour Party” (above). The National Crime Agency, launched in October 2013 as a “UK FBI” is limited in Northern Ireland to border and customs functions (WP). The dispute between the political parties concerns oversight of the NCA. In England and Wales it is overseen by parliament and there is no local oversight, which worries nationalists. After many months of negotiation, the SDLP in February supported a motion to consent to full introduction of the NCA; Republicans objected on the grounds that the body might become an arm of MI5 (BelTel).

Previously in the same location: Check

2015-03-09 SDLP=NCA+

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Scottish Invasion

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After a fraught experience with a colony of gold-digging Englishmen, native American princess Pocahontas keeps a wary on eye on the Scot Merida (from Disney’s Brave), who is armed with a bow and arrows.

For more Disney princesses: Look Behind You! | Magic Mountain | If The Shoe Fits | Bound & Determined

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Unite The Union

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2015-02-28 TransportUnite+

Here are more images from the new ‘Unite – the union’ mural at Transport House. A separate entry features Jim Larkin, who, after the Belfast lockout, founded the Irish Transport & General Workers Union in 1909. The separate (Amalgamated) Transport & General Workers Union (headquartered in London) was formed in 1922. (Larkin’s old union NUDL, renamed the National Union of Dock, Riverside and General Workers in Great Britain and Ireland, joined soon after in the same year.) In 2007, the T&G merged with Amicus to form the current Unite – The Union. The TGWU’s base in Belfast was Transport House, a 1959 building by architect J.J. Brennan in the International style (C20) and a B1 listed building (wikimedia). As can be seen from the image of a female welder above, the new mural features the green tile squares of the building itself, as well as the string of workers in the large mosaic on the front.

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2015-02-28 TransportWide+

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Big Jim

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2015-02-28 TransportLarkin+

Big Jim Larkin spoke from the steps of the Custom House – a stone’s throw away from this new mural at Transport House in the city centre – in the early months of 1907, speaking on behalf of the dockers and other unskilled labourers, recruiting them to the National Union of Dock Workers, and ultimately organizing various strikes as part of what is now known as the ‘Belfast Lockout’, which stretched from April 26th to August 28th. Larkin was expelled from the NUDL and went on to form the Irish Transport & General Workers Union in 1909 and organize the Dublin Lockout in 1913. The rest of his history is equally dramatic, including arrest and imprisonment for ‘criminal anarchism’ in the US in 1919. (WP)

Here is an image of Larkin on the platform at a Belfast rally (mouse-over to enlarge), surrounded by workers wearing cloth caps.

2015-02-28 TransportClothCaps+

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Sign There

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2015-02-23 UnityWalk1+

Here is another set of tags (after the selection from the Cupar Way “peace” line in Sign Here), this time from the city centre, specifically Unity Walk and Garfield Street.

2015-02-23 UnityWalk2+

(For NOTA (none of the above) see previously: CNB12 | The Sun Will Make You Blind | Belfast Butcher | Street Life | Keep ‘Er Lit)

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2014-10-17 UnityWalkPanorama+

Compare 2014-10 with …

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… 2015-02.

2014-07-02 NikoGarfield+

2014-07-02 NOTAGarfield+

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God Bless Paisley, Fitt Never

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2015-02-22 GodBlessPaisley+

Gardiner Street graffiti: “God Bless Paisley, Fitt Never.” The graffiti is more than 40 years old, dating to 1969 or earlier (it appears in the Sunday Times magazine 1969-03-23). In 1971, Ian Paisley founded the DUP (in September) and had supplanted Terence O’Neill as the leading unionist politician. Gerry Fitt at that time had recently formed the SDLP and would represent West Belfast under that affiliation in 1974 and 1979 until Gerry Adams won the seat in 1983. The Northern Ireland Assembly was still sitting.

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