painted wall

Llibertat – Saoırse

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The flag and map on the left is the flag of the Catalan Countries (the Starry Plough is in the middle, the Tricolour on the right, with Ireland as a blob). The Catalan Countries include (in Spain) Catalonia, parts of Valencia, and the Balearic islands, plus Andorra, and (in France) the Roussillon region. For a similar pairing (llibertat-saoırse) with portraits of international heroes, see Llibertat (also Llibertat Països Catalans).

Falls Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Brian Robinson

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“1st Batt B Coy Vol Brian Robinson killed in action 2nd Sept 1989. For his country and people he took up the gun a volunteer to the end and a true Ulster son robbed of his life’s blood in Sept 89 but the name Brian Robinson will live for all time.” Robinson was killed by an army undercover unit moments after he had shot and killed a Catholic named Patrick McKenna (WP). As the plaque notes, his mother died at the same time – she reportedly had a heart-attack when she heard of his death.

Disraeli Street, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Lt Col Trevor King

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Trevor “Kingso” King served time for his part in the Battle At Springmartin in 1972, in which seven people, including a British soldier, died. In 1994, having been shot by the INLA and paralysed from the neck down, King took the decision to remove his own life-support (WP).

The words on the left are from Suicide In The Trenches by WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon:

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads pass by
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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2012 repaint [M08244] [M08245] [M08246] [M08247]

No 5 Platoon

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This UVF platoon 5, A company, 1st battalion, mural is just across Conway Street from the Noel and Tombo Kinner mural, which is also a platoon 5 mural. The plaque is “in memory of a true soldier, Big Bill Campbell”; for more info on Campbell, see Loyalist Prisoners & Widow’s Welfare (from when the plaque was moved up to the Shankill Road).

The verse on the left is from Siegfried Sassoon’s Suicide In The Trenches. “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them” is from another WWI poem, Laurence Binyon’s For The Fallen.

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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Brigadier John McMichael

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“Murdered by the enemies – 22nd December 1987. We forget him not.” The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1987. In addition to organising a team of assassins in the 70s and 80s, he founded a Political Research Group and wrote two documents proposing an independent Northern Ireland.

Previously seen in 2005.

Blythe Street, Sandy Row, south Belfast

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Copyright © 2006 Peter Moloney
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