Belfast west

No Going Back

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“Re-route Garvaghy Road. Marching back to the 19th century. No going back/Níl dul siar ann!”

NI Secretary Chris Bryant decided (on October 9th) to ban the Orange Order from marching past the Garvaghy estate (Guardian | Irish Times | Independent), though a legal challenge is being lodged by the Orange Order against it and a rally in support of the Portadown lodge is planned for the 24th (Belfast Live).

An application has been made for a November march on another contentious route, the lower Ormeau Road. Residents are monitoring the application (Belfast Media), and perhaps this mural on the International Wall (Visual History) will be re-purposed.

This mural is based on one painted during the 1997 dispute – see entry 101 in the catalogue of Mo Chara Kelly. See also: graffiti and posters about the (Garvaghy) dispute, and the Trade-Off, Stand-Off mural in lower Ormeau.

To the immediate right is the mural of Soso And Omar Ashour, and to the right of that is the mural for the Journacide documentary.

October 13th:

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Hugh Smyth OBE

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This is a new version of the Hugh Smyth board in Canmore Street, in the upper Shankill. It is very similar to the previous version (see Third-Class Citizens), with the main difference being the addition of the OBE medal that Smyth was awarded in 1996 for ‘services to the community’. There is also explicit mention of Smyth’s titles, as “The right honourable, alderman, and Lord Mayor of Belfast [city council] 1994-1995”. The small, inset, picture has also changed slightly – it is closer-up and in colour – though from the same photo-shoot by Bobbie Hanvey.

“Historically, Unionist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were first class citizens… and without question people believed them. Historically, Republican/Nationalist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were second class citizens… and without question the people believed them. In reality, the truth of the matter was that we all, Protestant and Catholic, were third class citizens, and none of us realised it!”

In-progress images of the board being mounted are included below. The mural that briefly re-appeared is 90 Years Of Resistance. The UVF A company mural to the left has also appears to have been refreshed, though it is not known exactly when. Originally, there was no platoon 3. Platoon 4 has its own board, in the nearby Glenwood Street. “This mural is a memorial to the volunteers of A Coy 1st Batt who served the Shankill community so bravely during the years of conflict. Gone but not forgotten. Here lies a solder.”

September 29th:

September 28th:

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Journacide

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Since the Hamas attacks of October 7th, 2023, IDF forces have killed roughly 260 media workers in Gaza and 28 in Lebanon. The International Federation Of Journalists in 2025 declared Gaza to be the deadliest place for journalists (Al Jazeera); the Guardian calls it “journalism’s graveyard”.

Seán Murray’s documentary “Journacide: The War On Truth” premiered in Belfast in June as part of Docs Ireland (pdf). It profiles four journalists killed this year (2026) in Lebanon: Amal Khalil (killed in al-Tayri on April 22nd (RSF)), and Ali Shoeib, Fatima Ftouni, and her brother Mohamed Ftouni (killed in Jezzine on March 28, 2026 (PBS))

International Wall, Divis Street, west Belfast, replacing the boy and phoenix from Painting For Palestine. For the poem on the ribbon, see Tell My Story.

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Coınnıgh Saor!

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Dual-language (Irish and English) traffic signs and road-markings have been mounted/painted on the Falls Road in the Gaeltacht Quarter (specifically, between Springfield Road and Whiterock Road) by the Department Of Infrastructure/An Roinn Bonneagaır.

Shown in this entry are signs and markings reading, “Tacsaıthe atá ceadaıthe,” “Lána bus”, “Glanbhealach uırbeach, Luan go hAoıne [agus] ın am ar bıth ar an chosán”, “Deıreadh an lána bhus”, “Coınnıgh saor”, “Ceamaraí lána bus”.

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The Phoenix Arose In ’81

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The phoenix in Clowney Street was first painted in 1981 and has been repainted periodically in the same form. (For a brief history, see The Oldest Murals.) In this update, the only noticeable changes are the quotation-marks around “69” and the golden feet on the phoenix.

For the WBTA board above the phoenix (which itself goes back to at least 2012), see Alternative Transport, Alternative Location.

Clowney Street, Beechmount, west Belfast

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Fight Racism, Not Races

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The chalk grid-lines are still visible but work appears to have ceased on the latest Kneecap-sponsored mural in Hawthorn Street (though an apostrophe was later added – see SMC). It joins the four that have been added to the facing walls, one in each of the last four years and all at the time of Féıle (see T07533 and T00841). The new addition likewise accompanied this year’s performance, at the Uppa Falls concert in the Falls Park on Thursday (August 6th) (BBC).

For the Gibraltar 3 board, see T00840; for the plaque see the Peter Moloney Collection.

Hawthorn Street, west Belfast

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A Call To Young Irishmen

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These are close-ups of the boards along the bottom of the D Company IRA board next to the Falls memorial garden. The two information boards at the extremes give brief biographies of the fourteen deceased IRA volunteers whose portraits flank the large map: Charlie Hughes, Jimmy Quigley, Daniel McAreavey, Patrick ‘Maguire’ Pendleton, Joseph McKinney, John Donaghy, Mundo O’Rawe, Michael Marley, Teddy Campbell, Martin Skillen, Bap Kelly, Billy Carson, Pat McBride, Paddy Loughran.

On either side of the large central plaque are two pairs of small boards. On the left are the Proclamation and the old information board (“Out Of The Ashes Of ’69”); on the right are an image of lilies and a reproduction of an “April 1933” “Call To Young Irishmen”, giving six reasons why they should enlist in the Irish Republican Army/Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann. The call came in response to sustained economic hardship in the country and Fıanna Fáıl’s wins in the general elections of 1932 and 1933. (Here is a pdf of the poster. And here is the IRA manifesto of 1933 (pdf).)

These boards were added c. 2020. Compare to 2013.

Falls Road, west Belfast

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His Free Will No Thing Can Kill

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New portraits of the twelve dead Troubles-era hunger strikers (including Frank Stagg and Michael Gaughan) have been mounted next to the Falls Road Memorial Garden, with a quote from Bobby Sands’s ‘H-Block Trilogy’ on the cross-bar: “There is no source or foreign force/Can break one man who knows,/That his free will no thing can kill/And from that freedom grows.”

See also the previous (black-and-white) version.

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