“Welcome to Creggan – watch your back on the way out” and “Welcome to the Bogside – RUC beware”. The (anti-Agreement/perhaps “New”) IRA volunteers are shown wearing balaclavas and holding an RPG and an assault rifle.
This is an interesting set of images from Main Road, Moygashel.
The first three employ familiar imagery of the UVF and the 36th Division (the Home-Rule era “Deserted! Well – I Can Stand Alone” is less familiar but goes back to at least 1988; the UVF flag also references the anti-Home Rule movement in the “1912” date of the founding of the Ulster Volunteers).
The stencil (“It is not racist to protect your own community”) and hand-painted board (“Don’t be DUPed”) indicate a recent change in attitudes.
In the May elections for the European Parliament, UKIP received the most votes and the most seats (24), campaigning on an anti-immigrant and Euro-skeptical message; this is its best electoral performance to date (WP). Perhaps in response to UKIP’s increasing popularity, Conservative leader David Cameron last year (2013) promised (gov.uk) a referendum on EU membership, should the Conservatives be elected in next year’s (2015) general election.
The source of dissatisfaction with the DUP is less clear. The party won the largest number of seats in the local elections in May (WP).
These are perhaps the first appearance in the Peter Moloney Collection of both sentiments.
This is the freshly-repainted UFF mural in Ballyduff (former version in purple). As the close-up shows, the figures are quite crudely drawn, with strange lips, elongated fingers, and amorphous limbs.
This UVF mural shows the flags and insignia of the UVF and YCV (Young Citizen Volunteers), Ballyduff/Glengormley 1st East Antrim Battalion, alongside the flags of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The plaque shows only a verse from Binyon’s For The Fallen.
Bonus images of the bonfire and the flags flying around the green.
This is an end-of-life shot of the Ballyduff UDA board on Fairview Road – for the same piece in 2009 see M05010. Together with the recently repainted South East Antrim UFF, it sits prominently on the main road through the estate.
“In memory of our fallen comrades of the INLA. Paul McCann, Matt McLarnon, Danny Loughran, Gino Gallagher.” Divis flats, St. Peters, and the plough in the stars, form the background. Information about the deaths of each of the four can be found via this IRSP page.
“This mural was erected by Teach Na Fáılte, Republican Socialist Ex-Prisoners Support Group. 2014. ‘I owe my allegiance to the working class.’ Seamus Costello 1939-1977”
The Craigavon Two – John-Paul Wootton and Brendan McConville – were convicted in 2012 of the 2009 murder of PSNI Constable Steven Carroll (BBC) and sentenced to 18- and 25-year minimums, respectively. The case is under review (Guardian) and a campaign for their release is under way (Fb | Twitter).
The stencilled mural above shows two pairs of arms in chains, surrounded by a border of chains; it replaces the right-hand side of Think Independently.
Hugo Street, west Belfast. The initialism was also seen on Slıabh Dubh last (2013) October.
As its title suggests, this lower Shankill mural was originally painted in 2000, highlighting UDA prisoners specifically, before being repainted in 2008 in orange. But it has been sitting with damaged plaster in the bottom-left corner for two years or more.
The house bedecked with bunting, UFF flags, and a circular UFF board is on Shankill Terrace (on Peter’s Hill); the UDA board is on a gable around the corner, next to California Close; the three individual UFF/UDA/UYM boards are on gables along Hopewell Avenue.
“This woman wants the truth – this woman wants to hide it.” NI Secretary Theresa Villiers (depicted on the right) refused to order further investigation of the shooting deaths of 11 Ballymurphy residents – one for each cross shown – in 1971 (BelTel) and also the La Mon restaurant fire-bombing in which 12 people died (BelTel).
This mural replaces the short-lived mural to Gerry Adams as he was detained while being questioned about the Jean McConville case – see Get The Real Story.