Belfast west

Lily Of The Rift Valley

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A pair of wooden lilies – symbol of the 1916 Easter Rising – are painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag and are placed below Palestinian flags on the Greater Ballymurphy memorial garden. (For the the names on the plaque, see the Peter Moloney Collection.)

The electrical boxes (below) are from the community mural at the bottom of Springhill. The imagery on the second one is by Emmalene Blake – see Seas Leıs An Phalaıstín.

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We Are Not Amused

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Belfast Royal Hospital was renamed in honour of Queen Victoria in 1899 (two years before her death) and a bronze statue by J. Wenlock Rollins (Public Statues) was installed in 1903 at the entrance to the hospital in its new Grosvenor Road location.

Activists from Lasaır Dhearg (web) poured red paint over what it called a “symbol of empire” on Friday (February 27th) (News Letter | MSN’s copy of the Irish News story). Paint remained on Sunday, despite an earlier attempt to wash it off (Independent).

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Anti-Racism World Cup

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The date of the next Anti-Racism World Cup, a soccer tournament at Donegal Celtic contested by international youth teams, has been announced as July 25th, 2026 (ARWC Fb). The banner above includes the flags of antifa, Catalonia, Lebanon, Cuba, Ireland, Sudan, the Basque Country, Palestine.

Andersonstown Road, west Belfast

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Costello & Gallagher

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Costello House, home of the IRSP and site of these two new boards, is named after Seamus Costello (b. 1939), who fought for the IRA during the Border Campaign and was interned in the Curragh for two years. He stayed with the Officials during the split, but was driven out in 1974 and formed the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the INLA. He was shot and killed in 1977 (WP).

Costello appears alongside one of his successors as INLA leader, Gino Gallagher, for whom see the recent Gino Gallagher, Chief Of Staff.

Falls Road, west Belfast

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Gaels Against Genocide In Gaza

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“Gaels against genocide in Gaza”, “Seasann CLG Naomh Pól [web] leıs an Phalaıstín [St Paul’s GAC stands with Palestine]”.

This pair of banners is on the fencing at Naomh Pól, on the Shaws Road, west Belfast. Teams at last year’s Murray Festival Of Hurling (named after St Paul’s player Liam Murray – Belfast Media) posed with the banner above (Fb).

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Ireland Stands With Venezuela

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“Free Maduro! Free Flores! Prisoners of war.” Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores have been held in a Brooklyn (New York) detention centre since they entered “not guilty” pleas on January 5th. The next hearing has been moved from March 17th to March 26th (Roya).

This is a Lasaır Dhearg (web) banner in the railings of the Falls Park, next to the Ógra Shınn Féın (web) banner shown in Hands Off Venezuela.

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Hands Off Venezuela

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“Hands off Venezuela – Dlúthpháırtíocht le muınt[ı]r Veınıséala [Solidarity with the people of Venezuela]” Commentary from Ógra Shınn Féın (web) on the recent US actions against Venezuela, which have included attacks on small boats beginning in September 2025 (WP), an embargo on oil leaving the country announced in December 2025 (Guardian), and most recently (January 2nd) air-strikes on targets in and around Caracas and the capture of Nicolás Meduro and Cilia Flores (BBC). After the removal of Meduro, US President Donald Trump said that the US would run Venezuela and that between 30 and 50 million barrels-worth of Venezuelan oil would be shipped to the US, sold, and the proceeds disbursed by Trump himself “to ensure it used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States” (AP).

For a history of the image, which shows a Venezuelan hand grabbing a US hand, see England, Get Out Of Ireland.

Falls Road, west Belfast

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Pobal ⁊ Óıge

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Here are five images of electrical boxes along the Whiterock Road in west Belfast, featuring various GAA and youth organisations: (from top to bottom) O’Donnell’s GAC (Fb), Glór Na Móna – Pobal ⁊ Óıge (web), Corpus Christi Youth Centre (Fb), Naomh Eoın CLG (web)

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Gino Gallagher, Chief Of Staff

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This memorial board to Gino Gallagher was mounted the day before the thirtieth anniversary of his death in 1996, possibly by former colleagues (Irish Times | Republican News). On the 31st, a colour party paraded to Gallagher’s grave in Milltown (youtube).

“Gino Gallagher, chief of staff, 30th anniversary, 30th January 1996. Irish National Liberation Army/INLA. “Finally, as we lay this volunteer and comrade into the soft green soil of his native land, remember him each time you gaze into the stars and see there etched across the sky the plough and the stars!””

There is an on-line archive of materials about Gallagher.

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