Here are three ‘Four Loko’ hand-painted ads in Belfast, specifically Islandbawn Street, west Belfast (above), Little Donegall Street, city centre (immediately below) by Shane Ha (web) in August, and (final image) Legann Street, Ligoniel, north Belfast.
Four Loko was originally contained caffeine, taurine, and guaraná (as well as being 12% alcohol), and was marketed as an energy drink (or, “blackout in a can” (GrubStreet | Campus Times)). Now, it just has the alcohol and the fruit flavour (Four Loko FAQ | WP page on the 2010 ban).
The people of Kilwilkie (Lurgan) supported the Armagh team in their (successful – RTÉ video) bid to win the All-Ireland senior football championship, repeating their former and only previous win in 2002 – see also Ard Mhacha (in north Belfast) and Ádh Mór Ard Mhacha (in Armagh) and (from 2023) The Core Of Armagh.
North Armagh remembers both the centenary of the Easter Rising – in black and white in the background are (above) the seven signatories of the Proclamation, (bottom left) Cumann Na mBan (see the 2014 west Belfast mural) and (bottom right) the Irish Citizen Army (depicted by the painting The Birth Of The Irish Republic) – but also nineteen local volunteers and activists from the Troubles era: (anti-clockwise from left) Thomas Harte, Michael Crossey, Charles Agnew, Julie Dougan, John Francis Green, Terry Brady, David Kennedy, Peter Corrigan, Sheena Campbell, Sam Marshall, Eamonn McCann, Harry McCartney, JB O’Hagan, Sean McIlvenna, Eddie Dynes, Eugene Toman, Garvase McKerr, Sean Burns.
The emblems in the upper corners of those of Na Fıanna Éıreann and the Irish National Volunteers. The inclusion of the National Volunteers is unusual and perhaps a mistake: they were formed in 1914, when the Irish Volunteers split after Redmond urged Irishmen to join the British Army in the Great War; about 24,000 National Volunteers joined the 10th and 16th (alongside roughly 180,000 other Irishmen) (WP). The intended emblem might instead be that of the Irish Volunteers, which kept the name of the pre-WWI organisation but only a fraction of the volunteers, some of whom participated in the Easter Rising; their emblem is also a harp but with “IV” or “Irish Volunteers” or (for the Dublin brigade) the Fıanna Fáıl sunburst. (If you can clarify, please comment/get in touch.)
“Drugs destroy lives/families & communities – Stand together against drugs – There’s always hope. There’s always help.” According to the Education Authority, one in eight young people and one in five adults have a mental health need (EA). Services are available from PIPS (web), Lifeline (web), Samaritans (web), Extern (web), Addiction NI (Inspire), Debt Helpline (Advice NI), GP William St (web), Frank (web).
Painted by JMK (ig) in Levin Road, Kilwilkie, Lurgan, replacing some anti-internment writing (D02265).
IRA volunteer Raymond McCreesh, originally from Camlough, died on May 21st, 1981, after 61 days on hunger strike. “In proud and loving memory of ten brave Irish soldiers who died on hunger strike in 1981 for their five just demands. I gcuımhne ar ıobaırt [íobaırt] cróga na staılceoırí ocraıs 1981 ní dheánfar [dhéanfar] dearmad orthu.”
This is a new version of a long-standing board to McCreesh in Taghnevan Drive, Lurgan. For the previous (painted) version (from 2009) see M05408.
“Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann. Óglach Sean Burns, Óglach Gervase McKerr, Óglach Eugene Toman. “But they dared to hold their heads up high and never once did fail to declare their wish for freedom like true sons of the Gael” – The Lurgan Ambush (A poem by Ita Green [set to music at Irish Folk Songs])”.
The IRA volunteers were three of the six people shot in Lurgan in three incidents in November and December of 1982; the others were Seamus Grew, Roddy Carroll, and Michael Tighe. The deaths of the three would be investigated by the RUC and then by the Stalker Inquiry into the shoot-to-kill policy (RN); an inquest was begun by the Coroner in 2007 (BelTel | Madden-Finucane). Under the Legacy Act, which came into effect on May 1st (2024), the inquest has been suspended and the case transferred to the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (Irish News).
“Lurgan town was rocked with sorrow/On that bleak November day/Hushed tones and tears were mingled/When great numbers stopped to pray.” These lines come from ‘The Lurgan Ambush’, a poem by Ita Green [set to music at Irish Folk Songs], paying tribute to IRA volunteers Sean Burns, Eugene Toman, and Gervaise McKerr, who died together on the night of November 11th, 1982, when the car in which the three were travelling was hit by 109 bullets from officers at an RUC check-point.
The ECHR ‘asmissibility’ report gives a full account of the incident and the subsequent investigations into it, including the Stalker enquiry into ‘shoot-to-kill’.
“Solidarity”, “تكافل” (in Arabic) between (Irish) republican prisoners and Palestinians in Israeli jails. Al Jazeera reports that roughly, 9,500 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank are currently being held, and about 3,600 without charge, under “administrative detention”. Springfield Park, west Belfast.
Below: “Support republican political prisoners” in “Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank”. IRPWA (web) board in Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast. See also: the same message on Divis Street, west Belfast.
“Stop the war on Gaza! Pray for peace!” There are doves in the upper corners but the central imagery is of a clenched fist and the background shows a republican volunteer (perhaps from the INLA) comforting a Palestinian.
For the mural that this framed image has been added to, see Clós Ard An Lao.
Clós Ard An Lao/Ardilea Close, in the Bone, north Belfast
– “Why do they come here, if they can’t speak our language?” – “We will learn your language! Will you learn to accept us?”
Despite learning the language and opening businesses, immigrants came under attack in early August as part of a wave of anti-immigrant rioting and attacks in a number of UK cities, including Belfast, Bangor, Carrick, Newtownabbey, and Ballyclare. Shops were attacked on Botanic Road and Sandy Row (BBC | RTÉ) and eggs were thrown at a Middle Eastern market on the Falls Road (BBC). In response, anti-racism demonstrators outnumbered an anti-immigration protest five to one (Irish Times | BBC); residents of the middle Falls came out a few days later (Belfast Live).
This anti-racism mural is on Albert Street, Divis, west Belfast. In-progress image (above) from June 23rd; image of completed mural (with additions by kids) below from August 11th
Paddy Duffy Collection 