The board below is from Armagh’s successful 2024 campaign in the senior football championship. The painted well-wishes in the image above might come from 2002, which is the year of Armagh’s only other All-Ireland win, but perhaps from one of the years in which Armagh were Ulster champions (2004, 2005, 2006 or 2008), as the earliest recorded image of it is from 2010.
“Macha – máthaır, bandıa, banríon, gaıs[c]íoch/mother, goddess, queen, warrior.” Armagh is named after Macha, who is shown here pregnant against knot-work of three interwoven horses. In one story about Macha, she wins a race against the horses of Connor, the king of Ulster, even though she is pregnant. The race caused her to give birth and she cursed the men of the Red Branch for nine generations, which would leave them all – except for Cú Chulaınn – unable to fight to the forces of Medb (Visual History).
This entry updates 2023’s 800 Years Of Irish Resistance, showing images of the republican memorial garden in Drumarg, Armagh. The main change is the removal of Cú Chulaınn (Visual History) and the elevation of the James Connolly board into its place: “If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and, mayhap, [here “perhaps”] raise a force that will destroy you. We defy you[, England]! Do your worst!” – James Connolly, Courtsmartial And Revolution, 1914.
There is also a new board in the ‘Women In Struggle’ gallery, next to a portrait of Maıréad Farrell and a “Republican Women’s Roll Of Honour”. It shows Colman Doyle’s famous ?1974? image (NLI | Treason Felony) of a female volunteer with assault rifle accompanied by the words, “This is not a man’s war but a people’s war, and very, very much suffering has been borne by the women, be they mothers, wives, political activists, or volunteers, and the men ought to remember that without the sacrifice of women there would be no struggle at all.” The words seem to come from a 1982 poster (CAIN) part of which was turned into a mural in Ballymurphy.
There is also a small plaque below the Connolly board to local woman Dympna McCague, who died in 2019 (Fb).
The photograph on the right is real: it shows British troops collaring a civilian in Coalisland in December 1971 – photographer unknown. The image on the left – a Celtic cross draped with a Tricolour – is AI slop. The first (or at least, an early and prominent) use of AI to produce images was Stop The Slaughter In Gaza from November 2023, and it is becoming more frequent in printed boards and wall-painting.
“”And still only our rivers run free” [youtube] – Independent Republicans Armagh [Fb]”
Palestine Action was declared a “terrorist organisation” in July, 2025, after members broke into Brize Norton and spray-painted Air Force planes and breached an Elbit facility near Bristol and caused an estimated one million pounds-worth of damage (Canary) in 2024. (Elbit is an Israeli defence contractor with 16 sites in the UK – WP.)
Eight of the twenty-nine people held on charges related to these events began hunger-strikes in November and December, 2025. They are listed on the placard in the third image: Kamran Ahmed, Teuta Hoxha, Heba Muraisi, Umer Khalid, Qesser Zuhran, Amu Big, Lewie Chiaramello, Jon Cink.
The last three strikers ended their fasts in January, claiming victory when a large government contract went to Raytheon rather than Elbit (CNN | Guardian).
“The Five Demands: 1. End all censorship 2. Immediate bail 3. Right to fair trail 4. De-proscribe Pal[estine] Action 5. Shut Elbit down.”
Both “don’t let them die” and “the five demands” are familiar from the 1980 and 1981 Irish republican hunger-strikes. Here is just one example of each.
These palm-fronds and colourful flowers (by Visual Waste (ig)) are at the Teal Monkey (web) on the Dublin Road and Ventry Lane (which runs behind the restaurant).
The Morning Star (web) is a bar in Pottinger’s Entry that dates back – as a coach halt – all the way to 1810. (For a full history, see Lord Belmont.) This new mural, by Graffic Belfast (ig), features Guinness toucans flying over a variety of local landmarks.
These are images of the sub-station at the green in the middle of Drumbeg. Above are children bearing messages of “happiness” and peace (a second trio of children on the right-hand side of the image above has been blotted out by a large pink splotch). The plaque in the top right reads, “A Shared Space & Services Re-Imaging Project supported by the European Union’s Peace IV Programme”.
On the other walls are a goal with points for hitting different spots, the “Drumbeg Omniplex” with “movie coming soon”, and two pairs of Irish dancers on either side of a reflective panel that has now disappeared.
Paddy Duffy Collection 