Three Leaf Shamrock

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Here are two soccer-related images from Gardenmore Road, in Twinbrook. Above, James McClean in his Ireland strip – “Like James McClean we won’t bow down/To a British Army or and English crown.//I wear no poppy upon my breast/Just a three leaf shamrock upon my chest.” (though McClean is shown wearing the 2016-2018 jersey which featured a ball rather than an FAI shamrock).

The other three leaf shamrock familiar from soccer is that of Scottish team Glasgow Celtic, which is widely supported among the CNR community.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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That We May Live In Freedom

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The old C Batt mural further up Hornbeam Road has long been painted over. It used the same line – “They gave their lives that we may live in freedom” – to remember Wesley Nicholl and Brian Morton. A plaque to Morton is now included on top of the new mural. “Brian Morton (Morty) killed in action 07/07/1997, a true Ulster patriot who gave his life in defence of his country. Feriens tego.” As with republican memorials, “active service” means that Morton was killed by a premature bomb exploding.

Previously on this wall: Queensway Flute Band.

Hornbeam Drive, Dunmurry

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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For Twinbrook

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In 2019, images of Bobby Sands before his (second and final) arrest and imprisonment were rediscovered in the collection of French photographer Gérard Harlay. Sands was serving as a flag-bearer in an August 1976 march from the Busy Bee to Dunville Park to protest the withdrawal of political status. (For some of Harlay’s images, see Bobby Sands Trust.) This new mural in his home area of Twinbrook copies one of the images (though presents him as carrying a Tricolour rather than a harp) along with protesters protesting for “Public transport for Twinbrook now” and “Social housing for Twinbrook now”.

Twinbrook Road, Dunmurry

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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An Raıbh Tú Ag An gCarraıg?

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“Were you at the rock?” A red-headed lass with a horn stands watch for others at a mass rock – a stone in a remote location for Catholic worship, made necessary by a Penal law of 1695 which forbade the religious practice of Catholicism and “dissenter” forms of Protestantism (that is, anything other than Anglicism) (source). The harp, with a “cap of liberty” rather than a crown (WP), together the slogan “Equality – It is new strung and it shall be heard” is the emblem of the Society of United Irishmen (WP). On the other side of the mural (seen below) linen lies in the fields bleaching and a farmer and wife plough the land with a team of horses and distribute seed.

Glenbawn Avenue, west Belfast

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A Risen People

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“Beware of a risen people” (or “beware the risen people”) comes from Patrick Pearse’s The Rebel: “And I say to my people’s masters: Beware/Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people/Who shall take what ye would not give.” The slogan dates back to at least 1987 on this wall (see M00511 and M00600 from 1998).

Carol Ann Kelly, aged 12, was hit by a plastic bullet fired by the Royal Fusiliers on May 19th, 1981, in Twinbrook, and died on the 22nd – one of seven people to die in the summer of 1981 (They Kill Children).

There was previously a mural to Carol Ann in Twinbrook: M01630.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
T01519 T01521 T01520 Come away o human child to the waters and the wild with a faery hand in hand for the world’s more full of weeping then you can understand

Pride Of Glencolin

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Glencolin estate was built next to Moyard House (which in 1984 became home to the Roddy’s (web)) on the Glen Road in 1979 (Belfast Forums). For the fortieth anniversary of “eastát Ghleann Collaınn” the mural at the entrance to the estate was (belatedly) repainted. The composition of the mural remains as in the previous version, with the Roddy’s and Oliver Plunkett church in the shadow of Dubhaıs and Slıabh Dubh; they are now joined by images of Gaelic games. The Bobby Sands quote has been removed.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Son Of Protagoras

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MTO (Fb) was in Belfast for Culture Night 2014 and painted a large piece entitled “Son of Protagoras”. The ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius reports that Protagoras was driven from Athens and his books burned because he wrote that it was impossible to know whether or not the gods existed. On Fb, MTO adds a description of the Northern Irish “peace” lines, perhaps suggesting that religious adherence continues to be an enemy of peace: in his painting, a dove has been pierced by arrows bearing the cross of the Knights of Malta and the Latin cross.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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The Corrs

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Nell (l) and Elizabeth (r) Corr from 107 Ormeau Road joined Cumann Na mBan in 1915 and travelled to Dublin in 1916 (with Nora Connolly, Ina Connolly, Bridie Farrell, Lizie Allen, Kathleen Murphy, and another girl called O’Neill (Treason Felony)) to serve as messengers in the preparations for April’s Easter Rising. They were in Liberty Hall (shown in the detail above) on the morning of the rising before heading north. Brother George, on the other hand, died at the Somme as a soldier in the Australian infantry, while another brother, Charles, fought in WWI with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. They are pictured on the left-hand side of the mural. (BBC | BBC video)

Elizabeth’s account of Easter Sunday and Monday is available at the Bureau Of Military History.

Essex Grove, south Belfast.

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Copyright © 2022 Paddy Duffy
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Let’s All Do The Huddle

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Players from Scottish football team Celtic and local team Cliftonville “do the huddle” together. The mural was painted in 2013 to celebrate the visit by Celtic to Solitude (Cliftonville’s home pitch) for a Champions League tie between the two teams.

A mural outside Solitude was also painted for the occasion – see The Red Army.

Essex Grove, south Belfast.

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