Only Human

“‘The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go. [… We reject the firebrand of capitalist warfare and offer you the olive leaf of brotherhood and justice to and for all.]’ – James Connolly” [in 1910’s Labour, Nationality And Religion, part 6]

Lasaır Dhearg (web) paste-up at the Grosvenor Road entrance to the Royal, to coincide with the general strike of January 18th that included dieticians, physiotherapists, radiographers, midwives, and nurses (BBC).

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אי כניעה

Unlike the book of Lamentations (see Our Homes Have Been Given To Foreigners), the book of Jeremiah contains a promise that the peoples of Judah and Israel will return from Babylonian captivity and that the palaces of Judah will be rebuilt. In the New Living Translation, Jeremiah 33 v6 is rendered as, “Nevertheless, the time will come when I will heal Jerusalem’s wounds and give it prosperity and true peace.”

In addition to the Ulster Banner and Israeli flag (in the shape of hearts) we also see the emblem of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) – צבא ההגנה לישראל/Tzva Hahaganah leYisrael – and below that אי כניעה or “no surrender” in Hebrew.

“We are at war and we will win” was Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas attack of October 7th (Times Of Israel)

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Ulster Says No To An ILA

“Resistance to IRA demands – “Every word spoken in Irish is like a bullet being fired in the struggle for Irish freedom” – Ulster says no to an ILA.” The precise wording and the author of the quotation are unclear. Nelson McCausland of the DUP gives it as “Now every phrase you learn is a bullet in the freedom struggle” and attributes it to Sınn Féın’s Pádraıg Ó Maolchraoıbhe in May 1982 (BelTel | Nelson’s View). The Irish language is not, of course, the exclusive property of militant republicanism, and, although the IRA has ceased its campaign and decommissioned its weapons, it is used here in conjunction with an image of a gunman firing an assault rifle in order to provoke fear against an Irish Language Act. The bill – enacted by Westminster rather than Stormont – became law last (2022) December (BBC). The poster dates from 2022 or 2021.

See previously: A Tale Of Two Protests | Acht Anoıs.

Below are “PSNIRA” targets and an old Leo Varadkar poster – see A Return To Violence.

Beechfield Avenue, Carrickfergus

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Belfast Romances

This Leo Boyd (web) piece in Great Victoria Street brings together many of the ideas seen in his posters over the years, including When Urban Love Goes Wrong, Belfast Kitty Hall, DeLorean cars, Godzilla – “The monster created by atoms gone wild! Escaped from Belfast zoo”, and the wind-up police land-rover.

“Approved by DC Tours

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As You Lived You Must Die

“”As you lived you must die/An’ your last gasp or cry/Will be heard very likely by none/Not one/You unfortunate devil, Maglone.” – Barney Maglone Robert A. Wilson.”

Wilson was a Donegal man who, after some time in America, worked for newspapers in Enniskillen and Belfast. He was most famous under the pen-name “Barney Maglone” as the author of ‘To My Cousin In Amerikay’ and ‘Barney Maglone’s Notions Of Things’ (DIB).

The poem from which these lines come can be found in the [Belfast] Morning News obituary reprinted in the Portland Guardian And Normanby Advertiser (Victoria, Australia) for November 2nd, 1875 (though it gives “misfortunate divil” in the final line).

The paste-up is by Peter Strain (web) in Wilson’s Court, one of the Belfast Entries. Other pieces by Strain in the entries can be seen in Handsome, Easy-Going, And Utterly Untrustworthy | The Blots On The Page Are So Black | Trust Women.

The piece below, in Joy’s Entry, shows a sign for “R. A. Wilson’s philosophical instruments labyrinthine sale!” It is probably by Leo Boyd – see The Farset Voice.

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