international

The United Nations

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A trio of international causes aimed at the visiting Joe Biden, president of the United States, from Gael Force Art and People Before Profit. What’s new here is the “No 2 NATO” under the Irish Tricolour. The other two parts have been on the mountain previously: the Cuban flag with “unblock Cuba” reprises the maassive Cuban flag on the mountain in 2021, which was depicted in the La Solidaridad Invariable mural on Divis St, and the Palestinian flag with “BDS” [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] in 2018’s #BDS.

The third image shows the Cuban flag being rolled out; Bayview Media has a video of the installation on twitter.

For more on Biden’s visit, see Joe Biden, Globalist.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02524 T02522 T02521 T02523 T02520 in prog

Irish Republican Solidarity With Palestine

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Dome Of The Rock with its golden dome and octagonal walls (WP) provides a background to Palestinian protesters in this board expressing solidarity with Palestine (seen previously in 2021-11). Éıstıgí (Fb) is the youth division of Saoradh (web), and IRPWA (tw) is its prisoner-of-war organisation.

This is a printed board but even so the artwork is in a different style to what has been previously seen, with the two characters drawn in a cartoon/animation style.

Westland Street, Bogside, Derry

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
T02119 [T04232]

Take These Seeds

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A Ukrainian woman in Heniches’k (just north of Crimea) (tw | with subtitles) became famous for berating an invading Russian soldier with the words “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow here when you all die here.” Ukraine is the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil (WP) and since the Russian invasion began on February 24th, prices have increased – so far – by about 70% (Money Control), sending countries (especially India – Reuters | Bloomberg) and companies around the globe scrambling for alternatives, such as the replacement of sunflower oil by rapeseed oil in the making of crisps in Ireland (The Journal). The sunflower has become a symbol of solidarity with Ukraine, along with the Ukrainian flag. This giant sunflower was painted by emic (web | tw | ig) in Harrow Street.

Update: added to the side wall “Ar scáth a chéıle a mhaıreann na daoıne”, here translated as “People live in each other’s shadows.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01758 T01757 T01759

Eyes That Have Cried

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The phrase “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried” is attributed to Óscar Romero, a Catholic priest in El Salvador. He was a critic of the military government and was assasinated in March 1980 while saying mass. He was made a saint in 2015. (WP)

Sister Janet Mead had a surprise hit in 1973 with a pop-rock rendition of the Lord’s Prayer (youtube).

This mural will be ten years old this (2023) summer, as will the Eileen Hickey Republican Museum mural that it is next to — see Eileen Hickey.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01620

100 Years Of Partition

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01600 T01598 T01599 T01601 T01602

105 Years Of Balfour

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Britain in Palestine & Ireland” The Balfour Declaration of November 1917 is seen as a pivotal moment in the history leading to the what is formally known as the State Of Israel, as it made the UK the first major government to endorse the idea of a homeland for Jews (WP).

This board on Northumberland Street draws parallels between Ireland and Palestine: homelands partitioned for British imperialist interests, struggles for freedom met with British barbarism … forbidden from speaking their native tongue, faiths outlawed … . About 650 former RIC members were recruited to the “British Gendarmarie” that would police what was called “Mandatory Palestine” (Palestine Studies | Irish History) after WWI.

The League Of Nations mandate putting the UK in change of the Palestinian territory was replaced (in 1947) by a UN plan for partition, which triggered an internal war between Jews and Arabs, and when the UK ended the mandate and evacuated from Palestine in May 1948, Israel declared independence and neighbouring Arab states entered the conflict. About 700,000 Arabs were displaced during the fighting. Key48 (tw) advocates for the right of return and uses as a symbol the keys that householders took with them when they fled.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01454

Same Story, Same Bigotry

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Londoner Stephen Lawrence was murdered by stabbing in 1993 and, although arrests were made, no charges were brought. A 1998 public inquiry found that the Metropolitan Police Service was “institutionally racist”. In 2012, two of the original suspects were found guilty of the murder (WP). Catholic Robert Hamill was beaten to death by loyalists in Portadown in 1997 while police in an RUC land-rover looked on (WP).

Brompton Park, Belfast. The same board (in slightly different colours) appeared in Artana Street, south Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01310

Old Is The New New

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Ardoyne Stand With The People Of Palestine.” The central photograph is of 16-year-old Fawzi al-Junaidi, blindfolded and being marched away by 22 Israeli soldiers. Al-Junaidi was arrested for throwing stones in Hebron (West Bank) in December, 2017 (Independent).

This RNU (youtube) board is next to an Óglach Sean McCaughey board at the top of Berwick Road, Ardoyne, north Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01162r T01161