Londoner Stephen Lawrence was murdered by stabbing in 1993 and, although arrests were made, no charges were brought. A 1998 public inquiry found that the Metropolitan Police Service was “institutionally racist”. In 2012, two of the original suspects were found guilty of the murder (WP). Catholic Robert Hamill was beaten to death by loyalists in Portadown in 1997 while police in an RUC land-rover looked on (WP).
In the Workers’ Republic of February 12th, 1916, James Connolly posed the question “What is a free nation?” and, further, whether the Home Rule bill would make Ireland free in the requisite sense. “No” was his answer to the latter, and instead sovereignty would have to be reclaimed, by force if necessary: “There can be no perfect Europe in which Ireland is denied even the least of its national rights; there can be no worthy Ireland whose children brook tamely such denial. If such denial has been accepted by soulless slaves of politicians then it must be repudiated by Irish men and women whose souls are still their own. … A destiny not of our fashioning has chosen this generation as the one called upon for the supreme act of self-sacrifice – to die if need be that our race might live in freedom.”
Various of the posters along the bottom of this Ardoyne Fleadh Cheoıl (tw | Fb) mural have themselves been murals: Cú Chulaınn on the 1999 poster to the left was painted in Ardoyne Avenue the same year; Fleadh Érıu on the 1995 poster, under the go-kart’s left wheel) was painted on this wall in 1994; the Ardoyne Fleadh Cheoıl emblem (on the go-karter’s t-shirt) was used in Maıreann An Spıorad.
Kickhams is the local Cumann Luthchleas Gael (GAA club) (Fb | tw), founded 1907, named for republican writer Charles Kickham. The mural shows a football, hurleys and sliotar, and a handball.
“A little boy of fifteen years/was chosen thus to die./As a British soldier aimed his gun/And never questioned why!/The shots rang out, the echo[e]s still/Young Danny fell, shoot to kill./They shoot to kill & kill & kill/Oh please God stop them/But no one will.” Danny Barrett was shot and killed on July 9th, 1981 – a day after Joe McDonnell’s death and on evening of the same day as the shooting of Norah McCabe – by a single shot from a British army observation post on top of Ewart’s Mill. The mural in his memory is in Havana Way, close to his Havana Court home, where he had been sitting on a garden wall talking to a friend. For a full account, see Free Ireland or watch video of his sisters in front of the new mural. For the Lawrence/Hammil board in Brompton Road, see Same Story, Same Bigotry.
mural featuring (from left to right in the image below) Ardoyne Youth Club, Ard Eoın Kickhams, and the John Paul II Youth Club as alternatives to bullying, racism, homophobia, addiction, and other social ills. This panel shows Irish dancing, soccer, and Gaelic games; there are also images of young people practicing martial arts, DJing, and boxing on a side wall.
“Fáılte Go Dtí Ard Eoın. Ardoyne – a confident, colourful, creative community, and the people who made it so” particularly the local schools, whose insignia are shown on the left: “Thnx 2 all r teachers past and present.”
The previous mural in this spot (M01783) is invoked by the banner across the top: “Everyone has the right to live free from sectarian harassment” and the inclusion of Holy Cross Girls among the schools.
Whitney Houston and Bobby Sands are invoked on the right “We believe the children are the future – value the laughter of our children“.
For this year’s Twelfth, the famous UVF “Prepared for peace, ready for war” mural that has stood over the entrance to Mount Vernon for twenty years was retouched. The most obvious change is in the apex, as a different UVF symbol – with flags – has been included, along with the words “3rd Battalion” which had been in the much earlier version of this mural on another wall.
This metal gate of poppies opens onto a cluster of blue metalworks showing scenes from WWI and a map of the area around Messines. The silver emblems are of the 36th and 16th divisions.
For more, including the panels to John Cordon and William McFadzean, see M07770.
“Mol an óıge agus tıocfaıdh sÍ”. [Praise youth and it will flourish/Youth responds to praise] Above is the Joe Cahill mural in Beechview Park, next to the GAA pitch. The mural was unveiled on September 2nd, 2013. (Images of the unveiling from An Phoblacht.) Joe Cahill (WP) holds the cup aloft. The group in the bottom left corner (see the second image, below) are Pat O’Hare, Frank Cahill, Tom Cahill, (the three Cahills were featured in the previous mural) Ned Maguire, Jr., Ned Maguire, Sr., Alec Crowe, Paddy Meenan, Tommy Crowe, Dal Delaney, and Hugh Elliot. In the crook of Cahill’s arm are Rita McParland, Sean Wallace, Paddy Corrigan, John Pettigrew, and John Stone. None of these adults is still alive; all were from the local area.
The chalet bungalows in the background on the left are gone, but you can see images of them on the Belfast Forum.
The plaque on the left names others in addition: Billy Kelly, Alice Cush, Kate Campbell, John Mulligan, Mary Mulligan, David Mulhern, Margaret Mulhern, John Clarke, Margaret Farrelly, Marie Williams, Kevin Sullivan, Michael Rock, John McColgan, Bridget Maguire, Martin Maguire, Sally Corrigan, Sonny O’Reilly, Maggie McArdle, Jimmy McArdle, Kathleen Wallace, Maragret McGuinness, John Flanagan, Maisie McGuckian, Charlie McGuckian, Anthony Muldoon, Jim Logue, Ellen Weir, Liam Mackie, Oliver McParland, Sadie McMahon, Tommy Crowe, Maddie Holden, Sarah Doyle, Jimmy Doyle, Kathleen Pettigrew, Mary Cushnihan, Bell Cosgrove, Gerry Campbell.
