Anti-Agreement stencilling in Meenan Square, Bogside, Derry: “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace – P. Pearse. PSNI-RUC not welcome. Tıocfaıdh Ár Lá” and “CIRA – RUC/PSNI scum beware”
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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“Fáılte go dtí Brandywell” – this is a long mural about the welfare of children, citing rights 3, 6, 9, 23, 24, and 31 from the UN’s Convention On The Rights Of The Child, as rendered by Caroline Castle.
Brandywell Road, Derry
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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These anti-Agreement graffiti are in Foylehill (mostly Kildrum Gardens and Southway): “Smash Maghaberry”, “IRPWA”, “RUC not welcome in Foylehill”, “Victory to the POWs”, “End British internment”, Tıocfaıdh ár lá”.
The phrase “We only have to be lucky once” is from the IRA statement on the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing (WP).
The final piece dates back to 2009: “Internment 71-09. What has changed? Brits out, not sell out.”
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Three different campaigns for inquiries into deaths at the hands of British paratroopers are brought together into a single board on the site of the former Andersonstown RUC station (Visual History): the Ballymurphy Massacre of August, 1971, in which 11 were killed; the Springhill Massacre of July 1972, in which 5 were killed, and the killing of IRA volunteer Pearse Jordan, who, like the others, lived in the greater Ballymurphy area.
Pearse Jordan is commemorated by a plaque in Hugo Street and a mural in Ballymurphy. For recent (2014-12) news about the Ballymurphy inquest, see The Guardian.
See also Uncovering The Past | Our Truth | #TimeForTruth.
Here is a (youtube) video of the launch, 2014-09-24, produced by Sınn Féın.
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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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A British soldier patrols the streets while a girl walks home from school and a boy plays hurley. This is one of the panels in the long mural at the shops on Ardoyne Avenue.
The “Welcome” verbiage is just out of shot on the left-hand side; on the right is “Is fearr Gaeılge brıste ná Béarla clıste” [Broken Irish is better than clever English] and (out of shot) some Celtic knotwork. For close-ups of all of the panels, see Growing Up Too Fast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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The local New Lodge GAA club Cumman An Phıarsaıgh is named in honour of Patrick Pearse, executed after the 1916 rising. The club’s new mural features footballers contesting a ball and Pearse’s image appears at the centre of a Celtic cross along with part of his 1912 poem Mıse Éıre in the bottom corner (shown in the close-up).
Painted by Lucas Quigley and Michael Doherty. Replaces ‘New Lodge 2000‘.
Mıse Éıre: Sıne mé na an Chaılleach Bhéarra.
Mór mo ghlóır: Mé a rug Cú Chulaınn croga.
Mór mo náır: Mo chlann féın a dhíol a máthaır.
[Mór mo phıan: Bıthnaımhde do mo shíorchıapadh.
Mór mo bhrón: D’éag an dream ınar chuıreas dóchas.]
Mıse Éıre: Uaıgní mé ná an Chaılleach Bhéarra.
I am Ireland: I am older than the old woman of Beare.
Great my glory: I who bore Cuchulainn, the brave.
Great my shame: My own children who sold their mother.
[Great my pain: My irreconcilable enemy who harasses me continually.
Great my sorrow: That crowd, in whom I placed my trust, died.]
I am Ireland: I am lonelier than the old woman of Beare.
New Lodge Road, north Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Patrick O’Connor was born on April 15th, 1924, on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraıc Fıacc (“fıach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:
Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind
Sift on far-off Ards
Drift hazily …
I was born on such a morning
Smelling of the bone yards
The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs
The wayward storm birds
And to the east where morning is, the sea
And to the west where evening is, the sea
Threatening with danger
And it would always darken suddenly
Some of Fıacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. There are two videos below. The first is an interview with NVTv’s Bernard Conlon; the second is of a reception in Belfast City Hall.
Lower Stanfield Street, Markets, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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“Short Strand supports Gaza – tacaíonn An Trá Ghearr le Gaza”. The centre of this mural is Carlos Latuff’s cartoon Do Not Disturb – War Criminals Working. Israel, in the form of an aproned Benjamin Netanyahu, is butchering the people of Gaza. The world watches with some concern, Ban Ki-Moon and the UN look away, and the Arab League is asleep. The United States, in the form of Barack Obama, prevents any intervention.
The second image gives a wide shot of the long wall on Mountpottinger Road, which has its own Visual History page.
Short Strand, east Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Palestinian icon Leila Khaled, who took part in aeroplane hijackings in 1969 and 1970, is featured in this new mural pro-Gaza mural in Hugo Street. The central portrait is a replication of a famous photo by Eddie Adams (WP), taken after her first skyjacking; she then underwent plastic surgery to disguise her identity prior to the 1970 attempt (WP).
Khaled is also featured in the pro-Gaza mural in McQuillan Street: Oppression Breeds Resistance
This mural replaces the right-hand side of Think Independently, Vote Independently.
On the left is an éirígí stencil calling for “Acht Na Gaeılge Anoıs!!!” – “An Irish Language Act Now!!!” The Belfast Telegraph reports that an Irish language bill will be published in the near future, though the DUP have already rejected such an Act. (For more background and discussion see Brian Walker’s post on Slugger.)
In the middle remains JFTC2.
Hugo Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Here are two Sınn Féın boards on contemporary social issues, at the old Andersonstown RUC barracks. First is “Stand together against racism”; second is support for an Irish Language Act “Sınn Féın ag tacú le Lá Dearg Na Gaeılge, 12 Aıbreán – ag teacht le chéıle ag An Chultúrlann, Bóthar na bhFál, Béal Feırste, 2.00 in.”
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Copyright © 2014 Peter Moloney
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Peter Moloney Collection 