To Protect And Serve

“To protect partition! And to serve capitalism!” The Royal Ulster Constabulary, Police Service of ‘Northern Ireland’, and An Garda Síochána are branded as agents of the status quo, enforcing the partition of Ireland and the capitalist system. “Know your enemy – reject political policing”.

IRSP mural on Northumberland Street, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M12851a [M12851] [M12852]

End Forced Isolation

“End forced isolation, end controlled movement, end forced strip searches”.

This is a new panel – perhaps the fourth in 2015 – in the RNU (Fb)/Cogús (Fb) mural on Northumberland Street. If you can identify the image or the style, please get in touch.

For previous panels in 2015, see Free Stephen Kaczynski | Prison Torture | Leonard Peltier

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M12850

Reclaim The Republic

The masthead of the 1916 proclamation declaring a “Provisional Government of the Irish Republic” to the “People of Ireland” is faithfully reproduced in this éırígí stencil, along with busts of Padraıg Pearse and Tom Clarke.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
Oct 9th: M12848 M12847
Aug 27th: M12822 [M12823] [M12824] [M12825] [M12826] [M12827]

Always Remembered

UFF/UDA/UYM (North Down, 2nd battalion, D company) memorial mural in Bloomfield estate, Bangor, to Andrew McIlvenny and Roy Officer, with hooded gunmen on a bed of poppies flanking the UFF clenched fist.

The estate is also home to UVF murals, e.g. We Band Of Brothers.

Ballyree Drive, Bangor

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M12349 [M12350] [M12351] [M12352] M12353 [M12354] [M12355] [M12356] M12357

We Band Of Brothers

“For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” This is a new (July 2014) Red Hand Commando mural in Bangor with RHC Youth and Red Hand Comrades Association insignia against a backdrop of Thiepval Tower and the Somme, with masked gunmen in the foreground and a border of poppies.

The quote is from Shakespeare’s Henry V, act 4, though the lines are reversed (Folger).

Ballyminetragh Gardens, Bangor

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M12340 M12339 [M12341] [M12342] [M12343] M12344 [M12345] [M12346] [M12347]
M12348

Loyalist Lower Shankill

Welcome to the loyalist lower Shankill, and specifically the UDA (2nd battalion, C company) lower Shankill.

However, these are somewhat peripheral locations, in California Close, Boundary Way, and Hopewell Crescent. The centre of the estate has been re-imaged a second time – see Lower Shankill Angels.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M12186 [M12187] M12188 M12182 [M12183] [M12184] [M12185]
M12189 M12190

The Great War

The memorial garden in Mount Vernon, which previously had and Ulster Volunteers mural and UVF stone, has undergone a major redevelopment this year (2015) with a new “cut-out” mural to the 36th (Ulster) Division and stand-alone memorial plaques to six UVF (3rd Belfast Battalion) members who were listed the plaque on the outside wall of the garden. “Murdered in the service of Ulster: Joe Shaw 18-5-1974, Samuel Frame 13-3-1976, Jackie Irvine 16-3-1989. Colin Caldwell 28-11-1991, Bertie Rice 31-10-2000, Mark Quail 1-11-2000.”

“We salute also all volunteers at home and on the mainland who served with dignity and pride.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M12161 [M12162] [M12163] [M12164] [M12165] [M12166]
M12167 M12168
M12169 M12170 M12171 M12172 M12173 M12174
M12159 M12160 [M12175]

Covenants Without Swords Are Only Words

“Covenants without swords are only words” is a slight emendation of a line from Chapter 17 of Thomas Hobbes’s The Leviathan: “And covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.” 

It is applied here to the 1912 Ulster Covenant being backed up by the 1914 gun-running. Edward Carson is shown acknowledging the cheers of the Ulster Volunteers, who have been drilling at Glencairn (as seen in this Shankill mural).

Above the Unionist souvenir shop on the Newtownards Road, east Belfast. Seen previously in 2012: Where Ulstermen Shop.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
M12158