Belfast west

Am D’Aontacht

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For Sunday’s parade (in Belfast) commemorating the Easter Rising of 1916, Sınn Féın lined the route with placards featuring quotations from republican heroes past and present: the first Dáıl, Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, James Fintan Lalor, Roger Casement, the Proclamation of 1916, William Allen, the Declaration Of Independence, James Larkin (as Gaeılge), Máıre Drumm, Rita O’Hare, Martin McGuinness, Mary Lou McDonald, Bobby Sands, O’Donovan Rossa, John O’Mahony, Seán Mac Dıarmada, James Connolly, Liam Lynch, Thomas Clarke, Pádraıg Mac Pıaraıs, Maıréad Farrell, the IRB, Michelle O’Neill, Gerry Adams, Constance Markievicz, Winifred Carney, Na Fíníní.

William Allen was one of the “Manchester Martyrs” – for a link to background and the photograph used on the placard see the Peter Moloney Collection.

All of the placards include the emblem of the “Time For Irish Unity/Am Le hAontacht Na hÉıreann” campaign.

The speaker in Belfast was Donegal Sınn Féın TD Pearse Doherty; party leader Mary Lou McDonald spoke in Carrickmore, Co Tyrone; Michelle O’Neill was in Coalisland and Dublin.

See also the new National Graves Association/Cumann Uaıgheann Na Laocradh Gaedheal mural in Beechmount: Cuımhnímıs.

A Saoradh parade takes place in Belfast this afternoon (Easter Monday) in Derry – see Wear Your Easter Lily With Pride.

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Bring Nature Back

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“The Ark Of Extinction.com – Barn Owl – artist Marc Craig – Thanks to the Bog Meadows Community [Fb] and Ulster Wildlife [web], March 2025 – Bring nature back”.

This giant barn owl at the top (Falls-Road side) of the Bog Meadows is one of several pieces being painted by Craig in various UK locations to highlight local species that are endangered. The other piece, so far, is of a red squirrel in Cornwall. In the case of Belfast and Northern Ireland, only 30 pairs of barn owls remain, at most (Ulster Wildlife).

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The Rising Of The Moon

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This RNU (Fb) board features the closing words from Sands’s prison diary, from March 17th, 1981:

“They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.”

In the corners, funeral volleys are being fired over the coffins of Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell, two of the deceased 1981 hunger strikers who were local to the area. For background information, see the board that this one replaces: To Whom Do We Owe Our Allegiance Today?

Bingnian Drive, Andersonstown, west Belfast

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Cuımhnímıs!

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“Honour Ireland’s dead – wear an Easter lily”. This year (2025) is the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of Cumann Uaıgheann Na Laocradh Gaedheal, Béal Feırste (the National Graves Association, Belfast (Fb)) which maintains the graves of about 149 republicans in Milltown Cemetery (Belfast Media).

The graves under its care are marked with a red hand – for an example, see the grave of Joseph (Joe) Malone in Far Dearer The Grave Or The Prison.

This new mural, which features a Celtic Cross (emblem of the Association) and Cú Chulaınn (symbol of republican dead), is part (along with Free Palestine) of the side-wall next to Éırí Amach Na Casca. Easter Monday, this year, is April 21st.

See also: the Visual History page on Cú Chulaınn.

Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast

March 23rd:

March 18th:

March 16th:

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Solidarity With Gaza Health Workers

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In this graffiti outside the Royal Victoria Hospital, west Belfast, a person in a white coat faces a tank bearing an Israeli flag. Israel’s renewed bombardment of Gaza on March 18th killed more than 400 people (Independent), including an OB-GYN specialist in Rafah (Al-Jazeera); on the 23rd, an airstrike on Nasser Hospital killed five (Reuters).

Detailed figures of casualties among health-care workers in Gaza can be found at Healthcare Workers Watch.

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Wear Your Easter Lily With Pride

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These Saoradh (web) boards calling for attendance at the national march from Creggan to the new (2022) “People’s Monument” in Rossville Street are in Hugo Street (above) and Beechmount Drive (below):

“National Republican Commemoration Committee national Easter commemoration: assemble at Creggan shops – 2pm Monday 21st April 2025 for march to the People’s Monument — Free Derry Corner. Wear your Easter lily with pride.”

For a full list of this year’s commemorative marches, see Republican News.

Easter Monday falls late this year – April 21st – though still not as late as it did in 1916, when it was on the 24th. The event is typically celebrated at Easter, regardless of its proximity to the 24th, though for the centenary in 2016, anti-Agreement republicans commemorated the Rising on April 24th, specifically, while others paraded at Easter (which was at the end of March).

For the Finucane board, see Pat Finucane.

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Illegal Occupation

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This Lasaır Dhearg (web) board in Lenadoon is explicit in defending the use of physical force by Palestinians (specifically by the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine – WP): “Palestine has a right to resist. The Palestinians have a legal and moral right to resist the illegal occupation of their land by the Zionist settler entity known as ‘Israel’. We support a one-state solution: Palestine, free, from the river to the sea.”

At the Suffolk Road end of Falcarragh Drive/Céıde An Fháıl Charraıgh, formerly the site of Car Crime Is A Growing Problem.

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Ag Croí An Phobaıl

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Gort Na Móna CLG (Fb) has been “at the heart of the [Turf Lodge] community”, inculcating “muıntearas, mısneach, féınluach, bród [friendship, bravery, self-esteem, pride]” in its young people “ó/since 1974”.

The text and emblem appear here against a montage of photographs over-washed in the club colours of maroon, saffron, and blue.

[A small typographic note: different fonts are used for the Irish on the left and the Irish in the middle; the font in the middle (correctly) lacks tittles/dots on the letter “ı”.]

Springfield Road, at the upper entrance to the estate and across the road from the electrical boxes seen in Lóıste Na Móna.

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Free Palestine

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These electrical boxes are at the entrance to the Glencolin estate in west Belfast. The one above previously had an RSF stencil on it – see Restoration Of The Monarchy – but now bears an image of a Palestinian child in the ruins of Gaza flying a kite. (For the symbolism, see Tell My Story and My Kite You Made.

The arabic (“فلسطين”) reads “Palestine”.

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