“Don’t hand him over. Don’t play England’s game. Stop the extradition of Liam Campbell now.” Liam Campbell is wanted, for a second time, in Lithuania on charges of running guns to the Real IRA in 2006-2007. He was arrested in Dundalk in December 2016 and appealed his extradition in January 2021 (Irish Times).
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Irish Republican National Congress (Fb | web) board in Northumberland Street. This one features assault rifles and some nasty barbed wire; the one in Beechmount featured a Maid Of Erin harp.
With a small “Support the Palestinians” tarp below.
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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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This is an INLA board to deceased volunteers Danny Loughran and Matt McLarnan, Paul (“Bonanza”) McCann, Martin McElkerney, and Gino Gallagher. The new addition here is Martin McElkerney, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in March 2019 (Guardian). Shots were fired over McElkerney’s coffin (tw). He was released under the terms of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement after serving 12 years for his part in a booby-trap bombing of two British soldiers, one of whom died, in which two children also died.
For basic information on the deaths of the other four, see this IRSP page on the previous mural.
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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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The Republican Network For Unity (RNU) affirm their solidarity with Palestine over the recent deaths during the March Of Return (see also His Land, His Legs, His Life) with a board showing an Israeli hand smothering a Palestinian face. Here is the RNU’s statement on the deaths in Gaza at the time.
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Óglach Charlie Hughes was O.C. of PIRA D Company (“the dogs”) in west Belfast. He was killed in March 1971 as part of the feud between the OIRA and the Provisionals. PIRA volunteers, including Charlie and cousin Brendan Hughes (“The Dark”), had burned down OIRA drinking den The Burning Embers, across from Charlie’s house on Balkan Street, and were moving on to The Cracked Cup on Leeson Street, but were met with gunfire. Hughes was killed later that night, after a ceasefire had been agreed, by a single shot (WP | a 2002 account by The Dark). The mural replaces the small ‘1921’ tarp (see Do Not Touch).
The other figure shown (on the right) is Palestinian skyjacker Leila Khaled (see also Oppression Breeds Resistance).
Below is James Connolly in a Lasaır Dhearg stencil: “Empires and tyranny perish. We will rise again.”
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This is the first spot on the International Wall, Divis Street. Brendan Hughes has been included since the 2008 version (compare 2005 with 2008) but Crumlin Road hunger-striker Billy McKee is included for the first time. McKee was the first OC of the PIRA’s Belfast Brigade and arrested for possession of a handgun. The hunger strike was to secure political status for prisoners who had been convicted of crimes (WP).
“This mural is dedicated to the lives of: Billy McKee, Hunger-striker, Crumlin Road Gaol, achieved political status, 1972; Kieran Nugent, Blanketman, H-Blocks Long Kesh, fought the loss of political status, 1976; Brendan Hughes, Blanketman, Hunger-striker, H-Blocks Long Kesh, 1980.”
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A “European Citizens’ Initiative” allows for legislation to be put before the European Commission if one million signatures are collected supporting it (europa.eu). Signatures are being collected for a petition to ensure that EU-funded work on Covid-19 is shared worldwide by a group calling themselves “No Profit On Pandemic” and “Right2Cure” (web). The mural takes the place of the vandalised George Floyd mural that was replaced with a place-holder reading “#BLM – back soon”.
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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Left: Lawyers for the PSNI defended the request for a Public Interest Immunity certificate regarding evidence in the case of Noah Donohoe (PA). This stencil on Divis Street says “not in our name” and asserts that “the public want full disclosure”.
Right: This is the third mural (see 2014 The Maze Ablaze and 2018 The Battle Of Long Kesh) on the International Wall on Divis Street about the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’, when republican prisoners tried to burn down the cages in protest at living conditions in the camp. CR gas had recently been developed by the British MoD at a lab in Porton Down and is alleged to have been “used against Irish POWs”.
Brady & Faul wrote an 80-page report on the conditions at the camp following the event, entitled The Flames Of Long Kesh. “Telegram to International Red Cross: ‘ … Visited Long Kesh today with others … request immediate investigation into use of “CR gas” … sub-human conditions … SOS … come immed[i]ately’ – 20 Oct 1974, Brian Brady & Fr. Denis Faul”.
The photograph which the central part of the mural reproduces is HU 70205 from the Imperial War Museum’s collection.
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Comandante Che Guevara gazes down on the people of west Belfast and the giant flag erected on Sliabh Dubh. The mural replaces the Battle Of Long Kesh on the International Wall.
“Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez … President of the Republic Of Cuba 11.6.2021. ‘Irish friends and Cubans living in Ireland have placed a Cuban flag on a mountain in the city of Belfast. The flag is 46 by 23 metres, the largest in the world. With the flag [is] the giant slogan and it’s [sic] demand to #UnblockCuba. [This is a] Moving and beautiful gesture from the “solidarious” children of an admirable people, [a] dignified and patriotic gesture of Cubans who are far away. Thank you for your unshakable solidarity …”
(Originally in Spanish: “Amigos irlandeses y cubanos residentes, han colocado en una colina visible desde la ciudad de Belfast, una bandera de Cuba, de 46 por 23 metros, la más grande en el mundo. La acompaña un letrero también gigante, demandando #UnblockCuba. Bello y conmovedor gesto de los solidarios hijos de un pueblo admirable, digno y de patriotas que están lejos. Gracias por la solidaridad invariable.” #LetCubaLive
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“Serving the community for over fifty years.” BTCIC is the current name for what was previously the West Belfast Taxi Association. Black taxis have been running up and down the Falls since 1970, providing an alternative form of transportation to local people during the Troubles when buses were cancelled or, as in this picture, burnt out and used as barricades. They now, in addition, provide tours of the murals (such as the Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street) and Belfast city. Taxi Trax has a web site but here provides a phone number for those already at the International Wall, where there has been a black taxi mural since 2003.
There are other WBTA murals in Beechmount and Ardoyne.
The painters have signed the mural: Doherty’s Coal Merchant and Lyons Tea.
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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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