You Cannot Kill Ideas

A week before he was assassinated and his government overthrown, Burkina Faso president Thomas Sankara asserted: “While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.” Sankara gained power of Burkina Faso (then Upper Volta) in a 1983 coup and launched an ambitious programme of literacy, feminism, public health, and agricultural self-sufficiency, in addition to launching a drive against corruption and of nationalizing natural resources. He attempted this all without the assistance of foreign aid or the IMF or World Bank. However, he wielded power outside the jurisdiction of the courts and controlled the press. He and twelve colleagues were killed in October 1987.

Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Sarcoma Awareness

For a second year, Free Derry Corner is painted yellow as part of “Paul’s Campaign” for “Sarcoma awareness” – named after Paul Coyle who died of the disease at age 26 in 2011.

In the bottom left is a short poem: “Wear the colour yellow/Wear it proudly on your breast/Brightly show the bystanders/Our campaign it will not rest//Our fight is to highlight a disease/So harmful and so vile/To ignore it is to encourage it/To rid our face of smiles//So brightly wear that yellow/Don’t turn your face away/Raise awareness of sarcoma/Consign it to yesterday!”

Free Derry Corner has its own Visual History page.

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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End British Internment

“End the torture in Maghaberry Gaol – Smash Stormont – www.irpwa.com – Irish Republican Prisoners’ Welfare Association – strip searching – isolation – controlled movement.”

IRPWA board on the rear of Free Derry Corner.

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Clive Dutton

Englishman Clive Dutton was an urban planner who was best known for work in Birmingham, London (Newham), and Belfast. He produced “The Dutton Report” (pdf) in 2004 and “The Big Plan” (pdf) (the cover of which is pictured in the mural) in 2013. In them, he proposed and then updated a plan to tackle economic deprivation in west Belfast by the creation of a ‘Gaeltacht Quarter’ or ‘Ceathrú Gaeltachta’.  He died on June 8th at the age of 62 and the mural above has been painted in remembrance. 

The photograph of Durron reproduced here can be seen at The Guardian. Dutton’s “Big Plan” was celebrated with a mural featured previously.

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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forbaırt feırste ar aghaıdh lınn onwards 1953-2015

Short Strand Supports Republican POWs

A number of stencils were added last year (2014) in the corner of the wall at the top of Mountpottinger Road, in the Short Strand, to the right of the Charlie Monahan mural (seen before in 2006).

From left to right: an IRPWA (web) mural with the crests of the four provinces; an IRPWA mural with a prisoner being abused; “Short Strand supports Maghaberry Portlaoise Hydebank republican POWs; “Justice for the Craigavon 2 John-Paul Wootton and Brendan McConville”

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Britain’s Involvement In Torture In Prisons

“Cogús [Fb] presents ‘Britain’s Involvement In Torture In Prisons, Past And Present’. Speakers: Joe Clarke & Jim Auld, Gerry Brannigan, Moazzam Begg. Sat. 8th August, Conway Mill 7 pm – 10 pm. Free admiss[i]on”

Northumberland Street, west Belfast, taking the place of Leonard Peltier.

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Oppose British Political Policing

A 32-County Sovereignty Movement (web) tarp reading “Oppose British political policing” has been added below and partly on top of some lettering reading “RIC – RUC – PSNI”, “RUC -> Collusion covered up by PSNI” on a whitewashed panel that sat empty for weeks. It would seem that the original plans for this piece did not materialise and the tarp is a substitute.

On the International Wall, Divis Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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