Ireland

Better Way To Live

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Kneecap were back in town opening for the Fontaines DC at Belfast Vital at the Boucher Road playing fields on Friday (BBC) (and an after-party at the Beehive) before zipping down to the Electric Picnic festival in Laois. At both concerts they were outspoken in their support for Palestinians in Gaza, as well as criticising the DUP, Alliance (Belfast Live), McDonald’s and Kemi Badenoch (Irish Examiner). In each of the past three years, the band has added to the wall at the corner of Hawthorn Street and Cavendish Street (see in order: Incendiary Device, England Get Out Of Ireland, and Kneecap’s Fine Art) and it is now full with the addition of “Free Palestine – Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people” below the chimneys.

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Am D’Aontacht

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For Sunday’s parade (in Belfast) commemorating the Easter Rising of 1916, Sınn Féın lined the route with placards featuring quotations from republican heroes past and present: the first Dáıl, Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, James Fintan Lalor, Roger Casement, the Proclamation of 1916, William Allen, the Declaration Of Independence, James Larkin (as Gaeılge), Máıre Drumm, Rita O’Hare, Martin McGuinness, Mary Lou McDonald, Bobby Sands, O’Donovan Rossa, John O’Mahony, Seán Mac Dıarmada, James Connolly, Liam Lynch, Thomas Clarke, Pádraıg Mac Pıaraıs, Maıréad Farrell, the IRB, Michelle O’Neill, Gerry Adams, Constance Markievicz, Winifred Carney, Na Fíníní.

William Allen was one of the “Manchester Martyrs” – for a link to background and the photograph used on the placard see the Peter Moloney Collection.

All of the placards include the emblem of the “Time For Irish Unity/Am Le hAontacht Na hÉıreann” campaign.

The speaker in Belfast was Donegal Sınn Féın TD Pearse Doherty; party leader Mary Lou McDonald spoke in Carrickmore, Co Tyrone; Michelle O’Neill was in Coalisland and Dublin.

See also the new National Graves Association/Cumann Uaıgheann Na Laocradh Gaedheal mural in Beechmount: Cuımhnímıs.

A Saoradh parade takes place in Belfast this afternoon (Easter Monday) in Derry – see Wear Your Easter Lily With Pride.

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The Rising Of The Moon

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This RNU (Fb) board features the closing words from Sands’s prison diary, from March 17th, 1981:

“They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.”

In the corners, funeral volleys are being fired over the coffins of Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell, two of the deceased 1981 hunger strikers who were local to the area. For background information, see the board that this one replaces: To Whom Do We Owe Our Allegiance Today?

Bingnian Drive, Andersonstown, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2025 Paddy Duffy
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Republican Solidarity With Palestine

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Since the October 7th attack by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, the number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel has gone up from about 5,000 to about 9,000, including about 3,500 prisoners held under what is called “administrative detention” or what would be known here as “internment without trial”. (Figures for the last fifteen years are available at HaMoked and at B’Tselem.) Prisoners recently released from Israeli detention have described the beatings and degrading treatment they received (Amnesty | Reuters | Haaretz).

During the peace process of the mid-1990s, a green ribbon was used as a symbol of republican political prisoners, whose release was one of the major goals in a peace settlement – see this large example from Shantallow, Derry, from 1998. It is still used post-Agreement by physical-force republicans, e.g. End Brit Brutality and Maghaberry Concentration Camp.

The board is on the Meenan Square construction site in the Bogside, Derry. For the INLA board in the background of the wide shot, see Serious Trouble.

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The “Crisis” Is Capitalism

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Here is a gallery of boards and flyers from on and around the green-spaces adjacent to Free Derry Corner.

“The “crisis” is capitalism – this is a war on the working class. Don’t fall for their lies. Fight back, join RSYM [Fb]”

“Evict greedy landlords, not struggling families. Rates of housing benefit for private renters in Derry and Strabane … landlords should not be charging working class families more than these rates. Don’t let them rob you! Drop The Rents North West [Fb]” (on top of Cosaın Ár Neodracht)

“Remember our hunger strike martyrs – IRSP [web]”, “Stand up! Fight back! Join Éıstıgí [web]”, “Sovereignty, not Stormont www.32csm.org“, “Remember the ten” [hunger strikers]

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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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England Get Out Of Ireland

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Irish-language rappers and provocateurs Kneecap (web | ig) unveiled another mural in Hawthorn Street yesterday afternoon ahead of their Falls Park gig last night.

The post on last year’s mural (Níl Fáılte Roımh An RUC), Incendiary Device, included a shot of the sticker that has been turned into this year’s mural. The sticker, in turn, is based on a vintage mural painted in Strabane (England Get Out Of Ireland) and Belfast (Stad Maggie Anoıs).

Replaces the large GAA board.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Sovereignty Not Stormont

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Here is a small gallery of the boards from anti-Agreement groups on the green-spaces around Free Derry Corner (Visual History) and the hunger strikers memorial in the Bogside, Derry.

“Stop extradition! Oppose the extradition of Irish citizens”, “Justice for the Craigavon 2 – innocent!”, “Sovereignty not Stormont”, “Stop the extradition of Liam Campbell, victim of MI5 entrapment & condemned by five judges in Lithuania”.

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100 Years Of Partition

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Here is a gallery of the smaller piece on the building below Divis tower (except for the Welcome mural – see Gateway To West Belfast). From right to left (top to bottom in this post) we see a 32 County Sovereignty Movement mural, with the island of Ireland in green, white, and orange, and (representing prisoners) barbed wire and a candle; “Black lives matter” from People Before Profit; 32CSM tarp opposing “British political policing”; IRPWA board declaring the PSNI/MI5/British Army unwelcome; a 32CSM tarp against joy-riding; a Lasair Dhearg poster marking 100 years of … “pogroms, sectarianism, job discrimination, police brutality, imprisonment, collusion, housing discrimination, Orange supremacy, torture, internment, special powers, state sponsored death squads, language discrimination, gerrymandering, women’s rights denied, colonialism.”

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