“Ardoyne Fleadh Cheoıl – meon an phobaıl a thógáıl tríd an chultúr” = “building community spirit through culture”.
“Eıre [Éire] (Éıru [Érıu]), a queen of the Tuatha Dé Danann, slain at the battle of Taıltean [Taılteann] (Telltown [Teltown], Co. Meath) 1698 BC.” Érıu is placed in a neolithic setting and is releasing a dove which flies off in a trail of stars. (In the repainted version, the date given is 698.)
The frame of this mural in St James’s was originally painted by Andrea Redmond (Fb) in 1994 for a mural (included below) showing local pensioners remonstrating with a British Army soldier, under the title “The Spirit Of Freedom”, reproducing a photo that appeared in a French-language magazine (see below).
The central circle was repainted (again Redmond) for the 1995 “green ribbon” campaign: the dove holds the keys that will set free the republican prisoners, symbolised by the barbed wire and the lark in the apex. There was also a side-wall, showing two rows of green ribbons, each with the name of a POW (see immediately below).
“Sponsored by AP/RN” has been moved from the side-wall to the main wall.
In small letters on the part of the circle at the back of the soldier is written “This mural is dedicated to the memory of J[…] D[…] and M[…] Fitzsimons”.
On the side wall is a verse from the poem The Crime Of Castlereagh by “Volunteer Bobby Sands MP”: “All things must come to pass as one/So hope should never die/There is no height or bloody might/That a freeman can’t defy./There is no source or foreign force/Can break one man who knows,/That his free will no thing can kill/And from that freedom grows.”
“Beıdh an bua agaınn” [victory will be ours] is a slogan that Mo Chara Kelly saw inside a cell in the H-Blocks. A circle of four hands – perhaps intended to be in the colours of humankind – releases three doves: “freedom, justice, peace”. “We will be free.”
Painted by Mo Chara Kelly at the top of the Whiterock Road, west Belfast.
A Cormac cartoon protesting British censorship of Sınn Féın is rendered as a mural by Mo Chara Kelly. The broadcasting Ban was put in place in 1988, disallowing Sınn Féın representatives from speaking in their own voice on television and radio. But if the gag of British censorship were removed, the talk is of peace (in the form of a dove) – suggesting that there is some for negotiation on the violent removal of British forces and administration.
Out of frame to the left are written “Oppose censorship” and (in red) “Vote Richard May”. Richard May ran (unsuccessfully) for election to Belfast City Council in 1989.
Paddy Duffy Collection 