Our Demands Most Moderate Are

The sixteen-year old Sınn Féın Trade Union Dept mural has been replaced (though the plaque remains in the top right-hand corner) with another mural featuring James Connolly but with a new quote, from his 1907 poem: “Our demands most moderate are/We only want the earth.” The Irish Worker headline reads “Belfast ITGWU organiser Connolly gets 905 votes municipal elections”, referring to the municipal elections of 1913 – Connolly stood in the Dock Ward (SIPTU).

Rockmount Street, Belfast

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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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Republican Silverbridge

Four images from around Silverbridge, Co Armagh. First, a vintage “RUC Out” on a traffic sign; second, “No absentee landlord repossessor’s or their agents wanted in south Armagh” (for some background, see No Grabbers Here); third, an anti-Agreement stencil protesting the treatment of republicans in Maghaberry; fourth, “IRA” nail-up on a power-line pole near lower Cashel Lough.

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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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Never Actually Existed

Marty Lyons is shown adding the WARN emblems to an otherwise-completed mural on the International Wall, Divis Street.

On the left, an Irish family in front of a window reading “No Irish need apply” is stereotyped as jagged-toothed, shillelagh-wielding hunch-backs in the style of Punch and other magazines’ portrayal of the Irish. The Punch portrayal is described, and Punch named explicitly, in the song ‘Do Me Justice’ a.k.a. ‘Here I Am From Donegal’. (Lyrics | audio: Frank Harte (full song) | Len Graham (clip).) They also carry a copy of “The Big Begorra” – a play on The Big Issue, a newspaper published on behalf of, and sold by, homeless people. “We’re projections of 19th century anti-Irish prejudice—we’ve never actually existed.” 

The treatment of the Irish is used as an anology for the the Roma (WP): “Whereas I, ethnoid steriotypus their creator, have existed since time immemorial. My latest target—the Roma! I hope you’ll swallow all the lies I concoct.”

“Hey—what was the outcome of the harassment of the Roma newspaper sellers?” “The evening edition collapsed!” – this is a reference to the Belfast Telegraph‘s decision to cease printing an evening edition.

In the lower right is the signature of political cartoonist Ian Knox, a.k.a. Blotski (WP) – Marty Lyons and a Short Strand artist were also involved – and date (9 August, 2012 – for Féile 2012 (pictures of the launch).

Divis Street and Falls Road, Belfast

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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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Scaoıl Saor Marian Price – International Wall

Free Marian Price “posters” are painted into many of the murals along the “International” wall on Divis Street.

Click these links for the pre-Price versions of …
Kieran Nugent
4,400 Palestinian Political Prisoners (previously seen with Marian Price poster – see M08095)
Armagh Women
Laochra Loch Lao
Raıdıó Fáılte
Falls Curfew
Taxi Trax (purple)
Peace With Justice (perhaps originally painted with the poster; there are no photos without it until the 2014 repaint)
Free The Five (previously seen with poster – see M08097)
Oppose Racism.

The Maghaberry/Strip Searches mural did not have a painted poster added to it but (as can be seen in Street View) it did have a placard added to the bottom reading “Justice for Marian Price” – this difference is because this mural is under the control of anti-Agreement republicanism rather than pro-Agreement republicanism/Sınn Féın. (The same placard was also mounted in three places in the barbed wire above the wall – see the final image and the Street View link.)

The Guernica mural was left untouched, perhaps for aesthetic reasons, perhaps because it had outside funding.

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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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The Self Same Sky

A heart full of swallows below the slogan “Over us all is the self same sky”.

“A hand across the divide production 2011” “Robyn • Jonny • Caoimhín • Chelsea • Lauren • Maddison • Éireann • Johnny • Rachael • Kirsty • Tammy-Leigh • Sparkey • Fionntan • Shannan • Dorothy”

Crumlin Road, north Belfast

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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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Climate Change Affects Everyone

“Climate Change Affects Everyone … But Not Equally”. The sands of time are running out: carbon spewing into the atmosphere from factories (on the left) is melting the ice-caps, leaving polar bears without a place to stand (upper hourglass) and flooding Belfast (lower hourglass), and the Statue Of Liberty too. 

“Reduce your carbon footprint.” With support from Eco-Schools and Trócaire.

Northumberland Street, Belfast

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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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101 Years International Women’s Day

Room 101 was a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in George Orwell’s novel 1984. For women, the trials include racism, poverty, violence, injustice, sexism, trafficking. On the front side are posters protesting Marian Price‘s 295 days in isolation.

Free Derry Corner (front | rear), Lecky Road, Derry

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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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Léana An Dúın

“Over a third of all children, are growing up in poor households. About 185,000 of households are in poverty, representatin about 502,000 people. Over 148,000 of these are children.” This is in contradiction with the aims of both the Proclamation of Éırí Amach Na Cásca, 1916 – “… cherishing all of the children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past” – and the Democratic Programme of An Chéad Dáıl, 1919 “… to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing or shelter, but that all shall be provided with the means and facilities requisite for their proper education and training as citizens of a free and Gaelic Ireland.” The other images are of Béal Feırste 1969, Léana An Dúın 1972, and Na Staılceanna Ocraıs, 1981.

This looks very much like a Rıstead Ó Murchú creation.

Carrigart Avenue, Belfast

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Copyright © 2012 Peter Moloney
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