The People’s Parade (i.e. the parade supported by anti-Agreement groups) takes place April 24th, the date of the Rising in 1916; the other (Sınn Féın) parade was held on Easter Sunday, which this year was March 27th. The second board is above the RSF office/shop in the middle Falls; the upper image is on the International Wall, Divis Street, during the long time that it was being painted (and vandalised) for the centenary – it would eventually be launched on the anniversary of Casement’s execution, on August 3rd.
The PD/Cumann Sóısıalta Bhaıle Andarsan/Andersonstown Social Club was one of the early stops for the travelling version of the ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition that was hosted by the Ambassador theatre – see Revolution 1916.
The mural immediately above was painted to accompany the exhibition, reproducing the left-hand grouping from Walter Paget’s Birth Of The Irish Republic and putting the Proclamation in the background. For Paget’s original drawing and other versions of it, see the drawing’s Visual History page.
The new plaque (added to the memorial garden) reads, “1916 – 2026. We serve neither king nor kaiser, but Ireland. This plaque was erected to the memory of the men and women who give their lives in the fight for Irish freedom. “Apostles of freedom are ever idolised when dead but crucified when alive.” – James Connolly.” [from 1898’s The Men We Honour]
Also featured are Roger Casement and Winifred Carney, and a long-standing plaque to Danny Burke and Jack McCartan, former managers of the club who were “murdered by the British Army on these premises” (An Phoblacht).
The walls at South Link, Andersonstown, have been painted with three new murals for the centenary of the Easter Rising.
The large piece shows a succession of Irish rebels. It begins (top left) with the rebellion of 1798 and then to the Easter Rising of 1916 at the GPO in Dublin. In the lower left, a pious Padraıg Pearse awaits his execution with rosary beads in hand. There are then shown female figures from Cumann Na mBán and the IRA (see previously: United Irishwomen and Cumann Na mBan Centenary), and then Maıréad Farrell in Armagh Women’s Prison. In the bottom right corner there is a blanketman. The busts of Bobby Sands and Joe McDonnell float above the GPO and the last verse of Sands’s The Rhythm Of Time form the epigraph: “It lights the dark of this prison cell, it thunders forth its might, it is the undauntable thought, my friend, the thought that says, “I’m right”.
In the corner, “realising the Republic” celebrates the centenary (“Céad Blıaın 1916 – 2016”) of the Easter Rising and shows a copy of the proclamation of the republic and an Easter lily.
The third wall shows the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the provisional government of the Irish Republic. From left to right: Joseph Plunkett, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas Clarke, James Connolly, Padraıg Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, Thomas MacDonagh.
Three bandsmen – the first two of which, at least, are members of the UVF Regimental Flute Band, one in a vintage and another in a modern uniform – parade together in a new mural in Pitt Park. The UVF Regimental will be going to France for the centenary commemorations of the Battle of the Somme.
Shepard Fairey used Mannie Garcia’s AP photo of Barack Obama for his ‘Hope’ poster of the 2008 US Presidential election (WP). The three-quarter profile, faraway look and four-tone shading have been repurposed for the board, shown above, in east Belfast: a boy gazes beyond Samson and Goliath, the Harland & Wolff cranes, backgrounded by a sunburst: “Dream, Seek, Educate, Achieve!”
Painted by Dee Craig in Susan Street, east Belfast
The saying “You’re never too old to set another goal or dream another dream” is attributed to east-Belfast-bred C.S. Lewis — shown here on the right — though we are unable to find any record of him saying or writing these words; instead it might be be a motivational speaker called Les Brown. In the rest of the piece, young people play in the grounds of Queen’s University and Belfast City Hall.
A poppy cross has been added to the UVF memorial mural and plaque at Spier’s Place. The accompanying plaque reads “This poppy cross is in memory of three men who were murdered by republican murder gangs close to this spot. William Marchant died 28th April 1987, David Hamilton died 16th June 1994, Trevor King died 9th July 1994.” For some background, see Ordinary People, Extraordinary Roles.
The “Shankill Boys” were the roughly 700 men of the West Belfast battalion of the Ulster Volunteers who were almost all killed at the Somme. (This board – or a previous copy of it – was previously in Carnan St.)
As with all of the Belfast battalions, West Belfast had a “USSF” [Ulster Special Service Force] – its emblem is in the top left of the second board, below. (See previously USSF and Shankill Protestant Boys.) The other emblem is that of the ‘Greengairs Thistle Flute Band’. Although the background comes from WWI, the roll of honour lists modern-day volunteers from the UVF. Thomas Chapman, James McGregor, Robert McIntyre, William Hannah, and Robert Wadsworth are portrayed in Carnan Street – see C. Coy Street. The modern-day C Company, formed in 1974, is named after the Four Step Inn, which was bombed in September 1971 (see Four Step).
