“Beır bua – It is the responsibility of the living to keep alive the memory of the dead.” This is the second ‘Working Class Heroes’ piece in Ballymurphy. The other, from 2014, features Tommy “Toddler” Tolan, who appears here to the left of the phoenix.
The plaque on the right reads “This mural was unveiled by Johnny Doc and Maureen Tolan, 5th November, 2023.” There is video of the launch on Facebook, which contains a reading of the names of all the people pictured from the 1m 57s mark onwards.
This is a new mural to UVF volunteers (l-r) Robert McIntyre, William Hannah, James McGregor, Robert Wadsworth, and Thomas Chapman, who were killed between 1973 and 1978. Compared to the previous mural, the volunteers generally present a more relaxed appearance, lacking their jackets and parkas, though still brandishing a wide variety of weapons.
It is not clear who the two gentlemen in the top, wearing vintage UVF arm-bands, are.
Carnan (or “C. Coy”) Street in the Shankill. For the mural to the left (to Joe Coggle and Paul McClelland) see S. Company, C. Company.
Prepped for the launch:
July 7th: The plaster was taken back to the brick and then re-plastered and painted before the mural was added.
“Let’s make the difference – stand up for your community – join the IRNC”, “Show support to all Irish republican prisoners – join the IRPC”. These are new IRNC and IRPC (Fb) boards on Northumberland Street (Visual History), west Belfast. See previously on Northumberland Street: IRPC prisoner Niall Lehd | Join The IRNC
The 1916 centenary mural in Andersonstown has been repurposed and repainted to express solidarity with the people of Palestine.
From the frame of the previous mural – see Unbowed, Unbroken – the title, phoenix, and chains have been preserved but two instances of the inverted red triangle have been added at the top and bottom – see Resist! (and My Kite You Made).
The main panel puts the struggles in Palestine and Northern Ireland in parallel, showing (from top to bottom on each side) political prisoners, violence against protesters, and relatives carrying portraits.
On the left, Palestinian prisoners languish in Israeli jails (based on a photo of Hamza Abu Halima and on this Reuters photograph of prisoners sitting in the street, both from December 2023) and IDF soldiers make violent arrests – the one on the left is from 2016 (CCUN) and the one on the right is perhaps based on this Reuters photograph.
On the right: British soldiers restore order after the Burning Of Long Kesh (see Operation Pagoda), next to blanket-man Hugh Rooney, above three arrests made by British Army soldiers – their caps indicates that they are from the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (left) and the Paratroop regiment (centre). (For two of the original photos, see BBC | Getty.)
Along the bottom of both sides, marchers hold portraits of the dead, including the recently-killed leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar (BBC).
“In defence of the republic”, “Éıre aontaıthe, Gaelach, agus saor. Seasamh [“ag seasamh”? “seas”? “seasaıgí”?] le Poblacht Shóısıalach Dhaonlathach na hÉıreann 32 Contae.” “Nothing can alter the truth of it: Ireland belongs to the Irish” – Pádraıg Pearse. [from ‘To The Boys Of Ireland‘]”
[Ireland united, Gaelic, and free. Stand with a 32-county, democratic, socialist, Irish republic]
“Honour Ireland’s patriot dead – in our hearts your memory lives on. Irish Republican Martyrs Commemorative Committee [Fb]”
This board also serves to provide an end-of-life image of the piece behind it – Climate Change Affects Everyone But Not Equally – which is now 12 years old and has missing panels; since no one appears to be minding the space, the old board is simply being covered over.
This IRPWA (web) board in Glen Parade, Andersonstown, is in support of Palestinian political prisoners. 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”.
The missing exclamation-mark in the board above suggests that there is a missing third. See We Exist! We Resist! We Rise!
“They gave their lives for their comrades in the struggle for Irish freedom. They did so with courage, dignity and determination.”
The previous piece in this location – A Letter To The 22 – included ten dead hunger strikers from the before the Troubles; this new piece includes only the twelve Troubles-era strikers: Michael Gaughan from 1974 and Frank Stagg from 1976 (on the left and right in the image above) and the “ten men dead” from the 1981 strike: Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McIlwee, Michael Devine, and – in pride of place – Joe McDonnell, who was raised on the Falls but lived as an adult in the nearby Lenadoon area.
“Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.”
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).
After a long spring and summer of inaction, a new tribute to UDA assassin Stevie “Top Gun” McKeag has been put in place in the lower Shankill, replacing the flat-capped version of 2016.
In Tolstoy’s War And Peace, the prince Andrei Bolkonsky at one early point remarks, “It is not given to people judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more so than in what they consider right and wrong.” But after he is wounded at the Battle Of Austerlitz in 1805 and again in 1812 at the Battle Of Borodino, he loses his admiration for the blood-thirsty Napoleon and for war in general, and comes to think that events are a function of many individual decisions.
Stevie McKeag, hit-man for the UDA’s second battalion (west Belfast) ‘C company’, killed at least a dozen Catholics between 1990 and 1998 (WP). The version presented on the left-hand side-wall (just below) begins, “It is not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have internally been mistaken and will be mistaken …” which seems to be contradictory, and then continues “… and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong” which is difficult to parse so as to give the intended meaning.
The mirrored hooded gunmen on either side of the quote come from an old mural in the estate – see UDU-UFF-UDA.
The smiling McKeag is here shown in the main panel wearing a green beret (as is the anonymous volunteer in the side-wall) and commando jumper (with shoulder patches) as though he were a “military commander” in the Commandos or Royal Marines of the British Army. The UDU, the poppies, and the graveside mourners in the right-hand side-wall are used to put McKeag’s actions in the context of resistance to Home Rule and the British Army’s role in the Great War.
For the composition of the main panel, as well as its use of boards on top of the background, compare with the UDA piece in the Woodvale. The translation into English of the UDA’s, UFF’s, and UYM’s Latin mottos – [Quis separabit] / None shall separate us | Feriens tego / Striking I defend | Terrae Filius / Son Of The Soil – is unusual, as is the bouquet of flowers behind the poppy.
For more, including the mourning soldiers, see the entry at Extramural Activity.
“Land of the free because of the brave”. “Remember with pride”. “Those we love don’t go away/They walk beside us every day”. “Dedicated to our fallen comrade”.
April 25th, 2024: The boards were taken off, revealing an older version that stood 2010-2015.
[In the middle circle there were, over the years, a series of printed portraits of McKeag (and one painted version). For the version from 2014, see M11119; see also the image 2011, which links back to other versions from 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007).]
May 3rd, 2024: Scaffolding in front of the wall
This layer of paint (and plaster?) was also taken off, to reveal the remains of the original King Rat mural on the wall – see X15041 in the Seosamh Mac Coille collection.
The grand opening of the Vault collective’s (web) new digs in the Shankill Mission took place on August 17th. In preparation for the event, the shutters were painted by (top to bottom, left to right on the street) Dragos Musat (ig), Katriona (web), FGB (web), and Rob Hilken (web), each putting their own spin on the word “VAULT”.
Paddy Duffy Collection 