“Saoradh salute the men and women of violence,” namely the signatories to the 1916 Proclamation, the women of the 1970s IRA, and modern “dissidents” with home-made weapons.
The plaque on the left is to the IRA’s Pearse Jordan, next to the centenary celebration of the Proclamation, Ag Fíorú Na Poblachta. The board was been moved to this Falls Road location from Ardoyne; it replaces an anti-RUC/PSNI mural.
Hugo Street, west Belfast
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Palestinian icon Leila Khaled, who took part in aeroplane hijackings in 1969 and 1970, is featured in this new mural pro-Gaza mural in Hugo Street. The central portrait is a replication of a famous photo by Eddie Adams (WP), taken after her first skyjacking; she then underwent plastic surgery to disguise her identity prior to the 1970 attempt. (WP; see also minute 30 of the 2005 Swedish documentary on Khaled included below).
This fading mural is in Hugo Street, west Belfast
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“We seek nothing but the elementary right implanted in every man: the right if you are attacked, to defend yourself.” Re-imaging took a decisive turn into re-re-imaging with the return of hooded gunmen to east Belfast, at the junction of Newtownards Road and Dee Street (at the old Bright Street), replacing a mural for the Glentoran Community Trust. It’s not clear who the UVF felt attacked by in 2011; it is possible that this mural is also about local muscle-flexing in addition to sectarian politics or attention from the police. Eleven years later, the mural is still standing, though somewhat the worse for wear.
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East Belfast Protestant Boys (Fb) mural “dedicated to Gareth Keys” with the statement (on the side wall): “Our message is simple: where our music is welcome, we will play it loud; where our music is challenged, we will play it louder.”
In the old Hemp Street, nearly opposite Derwent Street, east Belfast.
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Manchester duo Nomad Clan (web) – seen painting Harland & Wolf at the Dirty Onion during Culture Night/Hit The North 2017 – returned a year later to paint on the Newtownards Road. In keeping with the previous piece at this site – Deirdre Robb’s flax flowers – they painted a “female flax gatherer from a bygone era” (East Side Partnership).
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Free-hand sprayer Dan Kitchener’s (web | tw) latest mural in Belfast (in Enfield Street in the Woodvale) places a black taxi – a mainstay of transportation in West Belfast – in the streets of Tokyo. To our knowledge, this is the first piece of street art in PUL West Belfast other than on the “peace” line; it will be interesting to see how well it survives compared to both sectarian murals and street art in the city centre.
“The title of the piece is ‘You can go Anywhere’ to show that with hard work and determination, you can explore the world. The mural is Sponsored by local Butchers shop Hugh Linton Butchers and R City youth group which are an award-winning organization helping Communities Integrate Through Youth. With the help of Jonathan Hodge local community volunteer. The taxi’s number plate HWL 1970 is a nudge towards the establishment founder Hugh Linton” (Belfast Walking Tours Fb).
Dan released a video of the mural in progress. Previously by Dan for Culture Night: The Dream | Blurry Eyed.
Funded by Communities In Transition with support from Greater Shankill Partnership and youth group R-City (tw) whose ‘footprint’ logo appears in the top left of the first image, above.
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The end wall of Columbia Street in the Woodvale was knocked down, taking with it a former Duke Elliott/UDA mural, which was then replaced with boards (rather than murals) commemorating the history of the UDA and Elliott. Elliott lived one street over, in Leopold Street (WP). He was killed in 1972, at age 28, in a dispute with other UDA members.
Ohio St
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The Battle Of Assaye (India) took place on September 23rd, 1803, and the 74th regiment of the Royal Highland Fusiliers became known as the Assaye regiment in recognition of their performance (WP). By the time of WWI, the regiment had been merged into the Highland Light Infantry, whose 2nd battalion fought at the Somme in 1916 alongside the 36th (Ulster) Division (WP). The Highlanders’ emblem (which still includes the word “Assaye”) is on the right, the Ulster Volunteers’ on the left. In the apex are the flags of the UVF and YCV (14th battalion Royal Irish Rifles). This new mural commemorates the UVF volunteers of both WWI and the Scottish brigade: J. Rankin, Br. Creer, B. Wilson, B. Creer, A. Steele.
“Ulster and Scotland did answer the call/Together in battle they bled and fall/Shoulder to shoulder their lives they did give/It’s to them we give thanks/For the lives that we live.”
“We are the dead. Short days ago/We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow/Loved and were loved/And now we lie/In Flanders Fields.”
Disraeli St
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This memorial to Brian Robinson (unveiled March 2, 2013) was sponsored by the Shankill Star Flute Band, in Disraeli Street – where Robinson grew up – and is replete with images from the first World War such as soldiers (both British and German), trenches and poppies.
Robinson was killed on 2 Sept., 1989 by an army undercover unit moments after he had shot and killed a Catholic named Patrick McKenna (WP). This is the second mural on the street to Robinson. The piece is not paint, but printed laminate, which is now cracking and peeling.
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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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This printed mural in the Woodvale area of west Belfast was officially launched on Saturday, June 3rd, 2017. It celebrates the creation of the Woodvale Defence Association as “Defenders of our community since 1969” which in 1971 merged with other associations to form the UDA, whose youth wing is the UYM (lower middle, “terrae filius” = “sons of the soil”) and which uses “UFF” (upper left, “feriens ego” = “attack to defend”) as a cover for military operation. The final emblem is of the LPA (Loyalist Prisoners’ Association, “quis separabit” = “none shall separate us”). The mural replaced by this one is in the bottom left, while the bottom right contains an image of Long Kesh in 1979. The main photograph is of a 1972 march on the Shankill.
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Paddy Duffy Collection 