The ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition commemorating the Easter Rising opened on February 27th at the Ambassador theatre in Dublin, “the city that fought an empire”. Images of some of the pieces on display can be seen in this An Phoblacht article.
In addition to the artefacts and recreated locations, two murals were painted by three Belfast artists depicting Irish culture and the republican struggle throughout the ages, from Nuada to the blanket protest. (Here is video of DD talking about the murals – youtube.)
Three sides of Liberty Hall have been covered with images commemorating the 1916 Rising. The banners include six images by Robert Ballagh, such as the scene in the GPO (see Revolution 1916 and the Visual History page on The Birth Of The Irish Republic), Connolly’s execution, and Frongoch internment camp in Wales, which held 1,800 republicans, who were afforded POW status and thus became a de facto education and training ground for republicanism. It was closed in December, 1916. (WP)
The text on the three banners is as follows:
1916 – 2016 SIPTU: ‘Ní saoırse go saoırse luċt oıbre’. ‘There is no freedom without the freedom of the working class.’ ‘The Citizen Army is open to all who accept the principle of equal rights and opportunities.’ ‘The first and last principle of the Citizen Army is the avowal that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, is vested of right in the people of Ireland.’
1916 – 2016 SIPTU: ‘Organising for fairness at work and justice in society.’ ‘Organising for decent work, decent lives.’
1916 – 2016 SIPTU: ‘The struggle for workers’ rights continues.’ ‘”The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland. The cause of Ireland is the cause of labour. They cannot be dissevered.” James Connolly.’ ‘Laoċra Na Cásca 1916: Unfinished revolution of labour and feminism: recruits welcome.’ ‘Frongoch: internment camp becomes university of revolution.’
The PD/Cumann Sóısıalta Bhaıle Andarsan/Andersonstown Social Club was one of the early stops for the travelling version of the ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition that was hosted by the Ambassador theatre – see Revolution 1916.
The mural immediately above was painted to accompany the exhibition, reproducing the left-hand grouping from Walter Paget’s Birth Of The Irish Republic and putting the Proclamation in the background. For Paget’s original drawing and other versions of it, see the drawing’s Visual History page.
The new plaque (added to the memorial garden) reads, “1916 – 2026. We serve neither king nor kaiser, but Ireland. This plaque was erected to the memory of the men and women who give their lives in the fight for Irish freedom. “Apostles of freedom are ever idolised when dead but crucified when alive.” – James Connolly.” [from 1898’s The Men We Honour]
Also featured are Roger Casement and Winifred Carney, and a long-standing plaque to Danny Burke and Jack McCartan, former managers of the club who were “murdered by the British Army on these premises” (An Phoblacht).
The walls at South Link, Andersonstown, have been painted with three new murals for the centenary of the Easter Rising.
The large piece shows a succession of Irish rebels. It begins (top left) with the rebellion of 1798 and then to the Easter Rising of 1916 at the GPO in Dublin. In the lower left, a pious Padraıg Pearse awaits his execution with rosary beads in hand. There are then shown female figures from Cumann Na mBán and the IRA (see previously: United Irishwomen and Cumann Na mBan Centenary), and then Maıréad Farrell in Armagh Women’s Prison. In the bottom right corner there is a blanketman. The busts of Bobby Sands and Joe McDonnell float above the GPO and the last verse of Sands’s The Rhythm Of Time form the epigraph: “It lights the dark of this prison cell, it thunders forth its might, it is the undauntable thought, my friend, the thought that says, “I’m right”.
In the corner, “realising the Republic” celebrates the centenary (“Céad Blıaın 1916 – 2016”) of the Easter Rising and shows a copy of the proclamation of the republic and an Easter lily.
The third wall shows the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the provisional government of the Irish Republic. From left to right: Joseph Plunkett, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas Clarke, James Connolly, Padraıg Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, Thomas MacDonagh.
Érıu/Éıre of the Tuatha Dé Danann, queen of Ireland, (as depicted by Richard J King) is at the centre of various representations of republican women.
Along the top are Ann Devlin, Betsy Gray, Mary Ann McCracken, Countess Markievicz, Nora Connolly?, and Winifred Carney. Suffragettes, the modern IRA, and Cumman Na mBan are depicted, as are Máıre Drumm at the Falls Curfew, Tom McElwee’s sisters carrying his coffin, and Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice running guns on the Asgard. There is also an unusual ‘four provinces’ in the corners.
The wide shot (below) shows a 1916 centenary (“céad blıaın”) board: “Ag fíorú na poblachta”.
repainted knot-work on the right in front, form July 8th, 2016:
detail shots, from August 9th, 2025, December 15th, 2025, and March 26th, 2016:
December 15th, 2025, portraits on small boards being added to either side of the (temporarily removed) proclamation:
July 31st, 2025:
July 14th, 2025:
May 5th, 2025:
Arrayed against the forces of the British Army (which are shown laying siege to the Dublin GPO during the Easter Rising in armoured cars and in sniping positions in the foreground of the mural, along the whole length of the wall) are various symbols of Irish nationalism:
Oliver Sheppard‘s 1911 statue of Cú Chulaınn dying (see the Visual History page); the pikemen of the 1798 Rebellion; the four provinces of Ireland; Érıu the mythological queen of Ireland/Éıre as designed by Richard J King/Rísteard Ó Cíonga; Easter lilies; the emblems of Na Fıanna Éıreann and Cumann Na mBan on either side of a quote from (The Mainspring) Seán Mac Dıarmada, “We bleed that the nation may live; I die that the nation may live. Damn your concessions, England: we want our country”; a phoenix rising from the flames of the burning Dublin GPO (inspired by Norman Teeling’s 1998 painting The GPO Burns In Dublin); the GPO flying an ‘Irish Republic’ flag; portraits of signatories and other rebels — (left) Padraig H. Pearse, Thomas J Clarke, Eamonn Ceannt, Thomas MacDonagh, (right) Countess Markievicz, James Connolly, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas Plunkett; the declaration of independence, placed over the advertising box of AA Accountants – see the in-progress shot below.
At the very bottom is a quote from the mother of painted Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly, Harriet Kelly: “We want the freedom of our country and your soldiers out.”
As can be seen from the images of the information boards that accompany them, these pieces are part of a second wave of re-imaging (Visual History 10) in the lower Shankill estate. Compared to the pieces they replace, these are even more neutral in theme, replacing cultural themes with community (and also all printed rather than painted).
Most of these are in the centre of the estate, alongside various UDA murals. There has also been a small wave of UDA stencilling and signage on the periphery of the estate – see Loyalist Lower Shankill.
The figure in the centre of the mural above is Peggy O’Hara, mother of INLA hunger striker Patsy O’Hara, who remained active in socialist and republican circles and stood in the assembly elections in 2007 as an independent. She died in 2015 and was given a paramilitary funeral, including a volley of shots fired over the coffin (BBC | Irish Times | An Phoblacht).
The female figure above Mickey Devine (in the bottom right) is his sister Margaret, from whose house his coffin processed after his death in 1981. (See the plaque in Breaking The Chains.) The girl on the left is pointing towards another mural, a dove of peace.
The standing figure, and the plaque, are retained from the previous mural.
This pair of boards is outside the Ulster Rangers Supporters Club (Fb) on the Shankill Road.
Above: The painting features a tram going under an Orange arch between the public baths on one side an Spin-A-Disc records on the other, surrounded by notable figures from the Shankill area. (Many thanks to Johnny Dougan of Shankill Area Social History (Fb) for the information below.)
Front, from left to right: Manchester United and Northern Ireland Soccer player Norman Whiteside (WP) and behind him boxer Davy Larmour and community worker Saidie Patterson (see WRDA), boxer Sammy (Cisco) Cosgrove, Senator Charlie McCullough (WP), Tommy Henderson, boxer Jimmy Warnock (original photograph here), Hugh Smyth (see previously Third Class Citizens), artist William Conor (see previously Conor’s Corner, Jack Henning (running), musician Belter Bell, writer Albert Haslett (Northern Visions interview).
Atop the tram: on the left is Jackie Redpath of the Save the Shankill Campaign (note other members of the group with placard on right; Northern Visions has a documentary about the Save The Shankill campaign) and Jack Higgins holding his book The Eagle Has Landed (WP). Up there too is Miss Sands, the music teacher in the Girls Model School, and historian Bobby Foster (Northern Visions interview). On the stairs are May Blood MBE and above her D.I. Nixon.
Below is a board highlighting the roles played by women during WWI as nurses and welders and in the Land Army. “She hasn’t a sword and she hasn’t a gun. But she’s doing her duty now fighting’s begun.”
