international

Ireland – Catalonia

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Catalonian independence mural, repainted from the black-background version, previously seen in 1997 and 2004.

“Not Spain, not France. Free Catalonia. Since 1714 the Catalan nation is military [sic] occupied for the Spanish and French states. Catalonia has their own culture, language, and history. Our country has more than 1000 years of history as a nation. The Catalan flag is the first European flag. Our fight flag is the “Estalada”. The white star means the freedom, and the blue triangle stands for the sky of humanity. Free Catalonia! United Ireland! El nostre dia arribarà! Tıocfaıdh ár lá. 11/8/97″

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04483 [M04484] [M04485]

Weary People, What Reap Ye?

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“Weary people, what reap ye? Golden corn for the stranger.
What sow ye? human corpses that wait for the avenger.
Fainting forms, hunger–stricken, what see you in the offing?
Stately ships to bear our food away, [amid the stranger’s scoffing].
There’s a proud array of soldiers — what do they round your door?
They guard our masters’ granaries from the thin hands of the poor. – Speranza”

The poetry is the first few lines of The Famine Year by “Speranza”, i.e. Lady Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar.

In the centre an aboriginal figure holds the flags of Ireland and of the Native Australians.

This is one of about nine murals painted in 1995 on the Great Hunger (Visual History).

“Painted by Síle Na Gıg & St James Youth Aug 95” in St James’s Crescent/Donegall Road, west Belfast.

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M04224 M04222 [M04223]
[M01893] Copyright © 2000 Sınn Féın

Free Palestine From 60 Years Of Nakba!

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“Nakba” or “Catastrophe” is the Arabic name for the exodus of about 700,000 Palestinian Arabs in 1948, from what would become Israel. Although the mural states “We will return!”, there has as yet been not right of return or compensation for lands seized.

The graffiti in blue on the wall reads “You destroy our homes but we build a nation”.

Please get in touch if you can translate the Arabic.

The International Wall, Divis Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
M03990 [M03988]

Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch

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“Che” Guevara’s father, also called Ernesto Guevara Lynch, was an Argentinian descended from Patrick Lynch, who emigrated from Galway (in 1742?) and married in Buenos Aries in 1749. (Based on these rodovid pages: one | two | three.) Che’s father is the source of the quote at the bottom of the mural: “In my son’s veins flowed the blood of Irish rebels.”

The Irish inscription, ‘Th[ı]ocfadh an réabhlóıdeach a mharú ach ní an réabhlóıd a scríosadh”, means (roughly) “It may be that the revolutionary is killed, but not that the revolution is destroyed.” Fahan Street, Derry. Launched October 13th, 2007 (An Phoblacht).

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Copyright © 2008 Peter Moloney
[M03979] M03980

Catalonia 300

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“Catalonia & Ireland – Saoırse • Llibertat”. Centralised Spanish rule dates back to the Nueva Planta decrees (WP) made by Philip V (shown upside-down in the first zero) between 1707 and 1716. These formed a single Spanish nation and citizenry and ended various regional identities including Catalonian.

Fahan Street, Derry

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Copyright © 2007 Peter Moloney
M03931

Guernica

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Picasso painted Guernica to protest the Nazi bombing of the Basque capital of Gernika (at the request of Franco’s forces) on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, which resulted in hundreds of deaths. Its reproduction in Derry in 2007 was to protest the Iraq war; it is entitled Iraqnica (Derry Journal).

Guernica was also painted on the International Wall in Belfast.

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Copyright © 2007 Peter Moloney
M03923