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More Than Machinery

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The portrait shows Chaplin dressed in the clothes of the barber but the words are spoken when he is dressed in the clothes of the other character he played in The Great Dictator (1940), Adenoid Hynkel, the Phooey Of Tomainia:

“We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.
Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little.
More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.”
(youtube)

Painted by Glen Molloy (ig) in Seymour Street, Belfast

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Together We Are Stronger

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“Thank you NHS & key workers” – this is a Covid-era wall-painting in the Village, south Belfast, illustrating togetherness with a heart of interlocking jigsaw pieces and a rainbow of various colours.

Kilburn Street, replacing Women Too (whose title can still be seen in the eave above this painting), and on the other side of the Women’s Centre from Allowed To Dream, We Learn To Fly.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Stand Off, Trade Off

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This mural protests Orange marches along “traditional routes” in Drumcree (Portadown) and Lower Ormeau (Belfast). It’s been roughly 25 years since the tension over these marches was at its height, but the scars have yet to heal. The DUP made a motion in the House Of Commons to lift the ban on the Drumcree parade this year (News Letter | Irish Times | BBC).

This long-standing mural was perhaps re-touched in 2021. Compare to the 2010 post.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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A Brighter Day

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“For every dark night there’s a brighter day.” This mural on the pavilion in Orangefield Park encourages people –young men in particular – to take care of their mental health, and serves as a memorial to Adam “Woodzy” Woods, who died last (2022) May of an overdose (BBC). Skank FM has images of the launch (instagram). With assistance by 5th Element (ig).

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Belfast Antifa

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The purpose of the “do not use” graffiti in Braemar Street (seen in Remember The Hunger Strike) has at long last been made evident with this new Belfast antifa (Fb | tw) stencil.

Above them is a Saoradh Easter Rising commemoration board (which was previously Don’t Play England’s Game).

From 2017: a much simpler stencil in Winetavern St.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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Bua Do Na hOıbrıthe

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“Victory to the workers”. Costello House is home to the IRSP (tw) “Advice Hub” with representative Dan Murphy (Mid Falls & Springfield) and Michael Kelly (Lower Falls). Murphy (in Black Mountain) received 2.7% and Kelly (in Court) 3.2% of first-preference votes in the recent local elections (WP).

Falls Road, west Belfast.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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It Is Not Our Differences That Divide Us

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“”It is not our differences that divide us. It is out inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde”, “Peace & reconciliation”.

This does not seem to be an authentic Audre Lorde quote but an extrapolation of some lines from the essay “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”, where she writes, “It is not our differences which separate women, but our reluctance to recognize those differences and to deal effectively with the distortions which have resulted from the ignoring and misnaming of those differences.” (p. 122 in Sister Outsider).

Painted in 2016 by students from Susquehanna University in Bread Street, Divis. “The river and bridge represent a Lutheran hymn about the peace of mind a river provides and the bridge connecting people” (Spaces4Learning). In 2017, students from the same university painted the gates on the “peace” line – see Ambassadors For Peace.

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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