We Exist! We Resist! We Rise!

“Solidarity”, “تكافل” (in Arabic) between (Irish) republican prisoners and Palestinians in Israeli jails. 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”. Springfield Park, west Belfast.

Below: “Support republican political prisoners” in “Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank”. IRPWA (web) board in Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast. See also: the same message on Divis Street, west Belfast.

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Gaels Against Genocide

“Seasann Léana An Dúın leıs An Phalaıstín [Lenadoon stands with Palestine]”. Gaels Against Genocide – “a collective of people from the Irish language, sporting & cultural communities” (Xitter) – was formed in January (Saffron Gael) and organised rallies in Belfast city centre in February (Pensive Quill | Belfast Media video on YouTube) and in June (BBC | Belfast Media gallery | Irish News).

Lenadoon Avenue, west Belfast

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The INLA

Commemorations of the INLA’s fiftieth anniversary have so far been limited to graffiti – see Saoırse Go Deo in Derry and Let The Fight Go On in Belfast – but here we have two deliberately painted panels in the Bogside (specifically Meenan Square) (one replacing The Way We Were).

The “Men’s Mental Health” addition to the Mandela-Sands mural is also from the IRSP (Xitter)

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X10917 courtesy of Seosamh Mac Coille 2022

To Whom Do We Owe Our Allegiance Today?

The “hills” and “green fields” in which Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell grew up were the streets of the Falls and Andersonstown. By the age of 17 and 19, respectively, their tramping grounds were reduced by internment to cells in Long Kesh and HMS Maidstone; both of them were arrested in 1976 during (separate) IRA bombing missions and ultimately died in the 1981 hunger strike, McDonnell on July 8th, Doherty on August 2nd. (IRIS | Long Kesh)

This trio of RNU (Fb) boards commemorating the pair and the other 1981 hunger strikers is in Bingnian Drive, in Andersonstown – the ten deceased strikers are shown between the words to Luke Kelly’s poem For What Died The Sons Of Róısín (above | youtube) and Francie Brolly’s The H-Block Song (below | youtube).

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New Lodge Volunteers

Twenty portraits in circular frames have replaced the twenty-one square portraits seen on the ‘Out Of The Ashes Of 1969’ mural in the New Lodge. From left to right, those portrayed are Michael P Neill, Seamus McCusker, Gerard Crossan, Colm Mulgrew, Francis Liggett, Brian Fox, John Kelly, Robert Allsopp, Louis Scullion, Billy Reid, Danny O’Hagan, Michael Kane, Sean McIlvenna, Jim O’Neill, Rosemary Bleakley, Martin McDonagh, James McCann, James Sloan, Dan McCann. Paddy McManus is no longer included, as compared with the earlier portraits.

For the mural without any portraits, at the time of its launch in 2012, see X00857.

See also the New Lodge IRA memorial garden.

New Lodge Road, north Belfast.

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Easter Commemoration

This RNU (Fb) board calls for attendees at a gathering in Milltown cemetery to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916. The signatories to the Proclamation can be seen above and behind the large Óglaıgh Na hÉıreann gravestone on the right.

Glen Road, on the grounds of the old Andersonstown RUC barracks.

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The Defence Of Ardoyne

Martin Meehan joined the IRA in 1966 and was one of a few IRA volunteers defending Catholics in Ardoyne (Ard Eoın) in August 1969. Rioting did not cease there until the 16th, when British troops were finally deployed to the Crumlin Road to block mobs coming from the Woodvale and Shankill. Meehan resigned after the failure of the IRA to defend Ardoyne, Clonard, and Divis. This Magill article from the time summarises the IRA’s actions as “late, amateur and uncertain”. (Meehan would later rejoin the IRA and PIRA.)

For a close-up of the plaque, see Show Me The Man.

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Peoples United

The slogan “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty” has been used in loyalist responses to Brexit and the NI Protocol, in Lurgan, Ballyclare, and Moygashel (one | two). It is used here in reference to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. PFLP (in the bottom-left corner) is the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine (WP) (seen previously in The Popular Front | Solidarity With Palestine | Resistance Is Not Terrorism and murals showing Leila Khaled); in the bottom-right is the emblem of the INLA – starry plough, red star of socialism, Tricolour, and fist holding an assault rifle.

Falls Road, west Belfast

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Free Palestine

The “occupied Palestinian territories” include the West Bank (including East or Arab Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip, which, although governed by Palestinians since 2005, is still considered occupied due to Israel’s blockade and control of Gaza’s borders and seas (UN).

This new mural on Ascaıll Ard Na bhFeá/Beechmount Avenue/RPG Avenue in Belfast is prompted by the current attacks on, and siege of, Gaza by Israel in response to the attacks by Hamas that left more than 1,300 Israelis dead (Jerusalem Post). The mural perhaps uses the same stencil as in Springhill in 2014, reproducing a Carlos Latuff (Xitter) cartoon.

See also three posts from Derry: Free Palestine | Victory To Gaza | Ireland Supports Palestinian Resistance

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