Here dead we lie

Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.

Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.

 

Alfred Edward Housman

 

 

Carnan Street, Belfast 2015



This mural is in Carnan Street, also known as C. Coy street.

It represents 5 volunteers from the Ulster Volunteer Force  (UVF) killed between 1973 and 1978, and they are depicted bare-faced and with the entire figure, which was unusual for Unionist as when represented as full figure they were masked. This style is therefore more similar to the Republican murals.

To commemorate the 5 young men, there is a poem from Housman, who was one of the greatest poet of the First World War. It is surrounded by red poppies, which are also called remembrance poppies and are used to commemorate soldiers that have lost their lives in war.

This mural is from 2014. Before this one there was the one reported here, also commemorating the five men of the 1st Battalion Ulster Volunteers (West Belfast).

Hugh Smyth, a Progressive Unionist

Today we go back to the Belfast murals....to the Unionist ones to be more precise....

Hugh Smyth was a Northern Irish politician. He was born in 1941 in Woodvale Road, district of the Shankill Road area of Belfast, and grown up in a third class family of nine children.

It was probably this to influence him in his political choices, before as leader of the Independent Unionist Group, a more formalised alliance of working-class independent unionists based in Belfast, and continuing as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party when the Group changed name. In his role, and hoping to gain understanding from the Republicans, Smyth was one of only two unionist politicians to accept an offer to visit IRA prisoners in the early 1980s.

“Historically, Unionist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were first class citizens…  and without question people believed them. Historically, Republican/Nationalist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were second class citizens… and without question the people believed them. In reality, the truth of the matter was that we all, Protestant and Catholic, were third class citizen, and none of us realised it!”

As politician, he represented the upper Shankill Road from 1973 to 2013. He died in 2014.

Canmore Street, Shankill Road, Belfast 2015

Canmore Street, Shankill Road, Belfast 2015

Read more on Hugh Smyth in Wikipedia.

Summer of 69

I said already that for passing from the Republican area to the Unionist one, I had to make a kind of "U" as the Peace Line was closed.

When you arrive to the Unionist area, around Shankill Road, and if you come from the Republican area of Falls Road, then the impact is significant. You have the impression to be completely in another country, no matter if actually you are in the same city and just few km away.

British flags waves everywhere, from building and across roads...with more showiness (under my point of view) than the Irish ones in the area around Falls Road.

Hopewell Avenue, Belfast, 2015

The summer of the 1969 was the beginning of the Troubles, as consequences of tensions amongst Republicans and Unionists based mainly on inequalities in housing allocation and problems in voting systems.

Conflicts and attacks on homes saw the displacement of several Catholic and Protestant families. This mural remembers that period.

The Peace Line #2

"We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society"
Angela Davis 

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"

Frederick Douglass 

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" Steve Biko

  

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy" Abraham Lincoln

Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others" Nelson Mandela

  

 "The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave" James Connolly

  

 "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on other innocent brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Muhammad Ali

  

 "I HAVE A DREAM...black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!..." Martin Luther King

The Peace Line

There are still walls which divide people.

Walls built in name of a religion, or of a political state, or to avoid people entering those that we believe being our own territories....

I remember  the 9th of November 1989 so well: the day when it was decided to open the Berlin Wall. After few days I would have been 14: thinking to the past, I am surprise how much this event touched me...I still have the journal article of that day.

Belfast is still divided.

"Peace Lines" were begun to be built at the end of the 60's, when the beginning of the Troubles increased the tensions between Catholics and Protestants, respectively pro and against Northern Ireland independence. The aim was to decrease the violent attacks between the two parts.

In West of Belfast, the "Peace Line" separates the area of Falls Road, where the catholic Republicans mostly live, to the area of Shankill, where the Unionists of protestant religion live.

The walls have gates (sometime controlled by the police) which allow the passage from one to the other side. They are open during daylight but closed at night.

All the murals shown up to now here are Republican and located in the area of Falls Road. I arrived at the Peace line at 6:30 pm.: the gates to pass to the Shankill area were closed...I had to come back almost to the centre of Belfast to make a kind of "U" route for arriving to the other side....

Discussion on the removal of the "Peace Lines" began in 2008, but a study carried out in 2012 by the University of Ulster showed that the majority of the residents believe that the peace walls are still necessary because of potential violence. In May 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive committed to the removal of all peace lines by mutual consent by 2023 (read the news).

More about the "Peace Lines" in Wikipedia.

I HAVE A DREAM

Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

"...And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

          Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!..."

Martin Luther King - Washington, 28th of August 1963

Salvador Allende

Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life.  And I say to them that I am certain that the seeds which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever.  They have force and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force.  History is ours, and people make history.

Colocado en un tránsito histórico, pagaré con mi vida la lealtad al pueblo.  Y les digo que tengo la certeza de que la semilla que hemos entregado a la conciencia digna de miles y miles de chilenos, no podrá ser segada definitivamente.  Tienen la fuerza, podrán avasallarnos, pero no se detienen los procesos sociales ni con el crimen ni con la fuerza. 

La historia es nuestra y la hacen los pueblos.

Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973

(ref:http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2006/allende110906.html)

On the 11 of September 1973 the Chilean coup d'état took place during the Presidency of Salvador Allende. When the troops surrounded the presidential palace, Allende gave his last speech to the Chilean people with a phone call to a local radio station. Later that day, he killed himself, according to investigations conducted by a Chilean court with the assistance of international experts.

The speech is the inspiration of this mural. At the centre of the mural is the portrait of Allende, and behind him is the symbol of the Unidad Popular coalition with whose support he was elected in November 1970 President of Chile. He has been the first Marxist to be democratically elected as president of a South American country.

Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

Nelson Mandela

IN MY COUNTRY WE GO TO PRISON FIRST AND THEN BECOME PRESIDENT

(Nelson Mandela, "Long Walk to Freedom", 1995)

South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician, Nelson Mandela was firstly a political prisoner from 1963 to 1990, and then he served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

This mural was unveiled in 2013, on the day before his 95th birthday. Mandela died on the 5th of December 2013.

As background of Mandela's portrait and his famous quote, there are the Irish and South African flags.

Mandela was a friend of Ireland and he is the symbol of the Fight for Freedom for the Irish and all the World.

Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

Francis Hughes

“It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most who will conquer"

Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

This mural was painted on the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike and put at the centre of the image Francis Hughes, an IRA revolutionary from Bellaghy, Country Londonderry, who followed Bobby Sands on the Hunger Strike.

He died 59 days later, on the 12th May, at the age of 25.

In the mural he is surrounded by IRA fellows and Republicans from previous eras (see the picture of entire mural with the list of the names of all the people represented at http://extramuralactivity.com/2014/01/page/2/)

Read more on Hughes in Wikipedia :)


Northumberland Street, Belfast, 2015

James Connolly

In the wall in Rockmount Street there are two murals.

Rockmount Street, Belfast, 2015

In the upper part of the wall, the mural is dedicated to the republican women. At the centre there is the image of Countess Markievicz, of whom I have already spoken here.

In the lower part of the wall, there is the image of James Connolly.

Connolly was a political thinker who came to Belfast as union organiser in 1911. He was living in Dublin when the republican revolutionary armed rising was decided, in 1916.

When the rebels surrendered, as commander of the Dublin Brigade he was brought before a British military tribunal and sentenced to death.

On the day of the sentence, the 12th of May 1916, he was so badly injured from the fighting that he was unable to stand before the firing squad at the  Kilmainham Gaol: he was carried to a prison courtyard on a stretcher, tied to a chair and then shot.

Connolly is also well remembered for his socialist and Marxist theories.

You can find more information on James Connolly in Wikipedia, and some of his quotes in wikiquotes.

In the video below, the song dedicated to Connolly makes feel a sadness that I am sure is only a drop of all the sadness that the Irish people felt at the moment of Connolly's death.

"A great crowd had gathered outside of Kilmainham
Their heads all uncovered they knelt to the ground
For inside that grim prison lay a brave Irish soldier
His life for his country about to lay down

He went to his death like a true son of Ireland
The firing party he bravely did face
Then the order rang out: "Present arms and fire"
James Connolly fell into a ready-made grave

The black flag was hoisted, the cruel deed was over
Gone was the man who loved Ireland so well
There was many a sad heart in Dublin that morning
When they murdered James Connolly, the Irish rebel

Many years have gone by since the Irish Rebellion
When the guns of Britannia they loudly did speak
And the bold l.R.A. they stood shoulder to shoulder
As the blood from their bodies flowed down Sackville Street

The Four Courts at Dublin, the English bombarded
The spirit of freedom they tried hard to quell
But above all the din rose the cry "No Surrender"
'Twas the voice of James Connolly, the Irish rebel

(lyric from http://www.kinglaoghaire.com/lyrics/663-james-connolly)

Kieran Doherty

Kieran Doherty was an IRA volunteer, who died on the 2nd of August 1981 during the Hunger Strike at the Maze prison.

When he died he was 25, and he died after 73 days on hunger strike, the longest of the 1981 hunger strikers.

He is buried in the Milltown Cemetery.

Kieran Doherty, Slemish Way - Andersonstown Road, Belfast 2015

The mural, as it appears now, is the result of the new painting of 2014 which replaces a previous mural of Doherty.

This new mural reports scenes of Doherty's funeral, which took place on the 4th of August 1981. On the left corner, there are the portraits of Doherty’s parents.

Several criticisms followed the inauguration of this mural, mainly because it reports masked gunmen. Read some of them in the BBC channel and the Belfast Telegraph.

On the other side, the Republican community celebrated the inauguration of the new mural dedicated to Kieran Doherty, as it is possible to follow in the video

Below some details of the mural:

Kieran Doherty's hearse, Slemish Way - Andersonstown Road, Belfast 2015

The volley at the Kieran Doherty's funeral, Slemish Way - Andersonstown Road, Belfast 2015

Kieran Doherty's funeral, Slemish Way - Andersonstown Road, Belfast 2015

The real photos of the funeral, which served as insipation for the mural, are shown in the hungerstrikes.org website.

The Easter Rising of 1916

Back to around 60 years before of all what characterised the rebellion of West Belfast and that is represented in the previous murals, Ireland was still under the British government.

With the aim of proclaiming an Irish Republic, and taking advantage of the commitment of UK in the First World War, an armed insurrection was mounted by the Irish Republicans, beginning the Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, and lasting for six days, mainly in Dublin.

This was called the Easter Rising, in Irish Éirí Amach na Cásca, and was the most significant rebellion since the 1798.

However, the British were more and better equipped, and easily suppressed the rebellion which led to an unconditional surrender on Saturday 29 April.

The leaders were executed, but the rebellion helped to enhance the will of independence amongst the people.

In December 1918, republicans won 73 Irish seats out of 105 in the 1918 General Election to the British Parliament on a policy on Irish independence.

In 1919 the Irish members elected in the British Parliament refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and established an independent legislature in Dublin, called "Dáil Éireann" (English: Assembly of Ireland). The first assembly (the First Dáil) convened on the 21st of January 1919 and declared the independence of the Irish Republic. In the same day, the Irish War of Independence began, an Anglo-Irish civil war which lasted until the 6 December 1921 when a treaty was signed.

A lot of history, just to show you the mural in Beechmount Avenue .....:)

Beechmount Avenue, Belfast 2015

The murals was painted in 2006, for the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

In the mural, a Republican volunteer is standing outside the burning General Post Office of Dublin. The emblems of the four province of Ireland (Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht) are also reported. The white lily between the emblems represents the sacrifice of the men and woman who have died for the establishment of an Irish Republic.

What I loved of the moment that I captured is the old man walking in front of the mural...the age-counting is wrong (the volunteer in the mural should have now more than 100 years), but the idea of the same volunteer walking nowadays in peace smoking a cigarette works quite well :) :)

Still on Kieran Nugent, the first Blanketman

I have already spoken of Kieran Nugent and the reason why he is called the first Blanketman.

I loved his courage.

Here there is another mural which represents Kieran.

Rockville street, Belfast 2015

I have also found in internet this interesting interview - from BBC - of Kieran explaining the reasons for his choice of wearing only a blanket and why he declared himself a political prisoner..."The British government have declared war in this country and there is a war going on in this country. We believe we are in there [prison] for political reasons".

The video is from 27th of October 1980.

PS: You may need to listen to the video more than once as Kieran's accent is not so easy! ;)

Kieran Nugent died on 4 May 2000 from a heart attack.

Difficult to find, fantastic to see (and shoot)

This was one of the farthest mural I went to...I guess I walked more than 10 km for arriving there...the map that I had was great to give indications where you could find murals, but very poor in terms of real representation of distances and names of the minor roads...so I found myself searching for the murals in this area with no real map, no too many people around to whom I could ask and...well no real news, under the rain...

Today, when I was doing research on internet regarding this mural (also very poor information on-line...:( ).....I found out that I was actually wander around in the Ballymurphy area, famous for the massacre of the 9th of August 1971. When I said that now West Belfast is a much calmer area where it is possible to go...that it is....I am now shocked by thinking that in those quiet roads a civil war was happening 40 years ago....

Lenadoon Avenue, Ballymurphy, Belfast 2015

In this mural we find a mythological theme: the central figure of the mural is dying warrior Cú Chulainn. The four circles represents the shields of four province of Ireland.
 
The mural commemorates the IRA members from local area who have been killed, whose portraits and names are reported.

left:
Tony Henderson: the first member of the I.R.A. 1st Battalion to die on active service in 1971 aged 21.
John Finucane, Tony Jordan: killed in a car crash in the Falls Road, Belfast, in 1972 while in active service for IRA.
Brendan O'Callaghan: shot dead by the British Army while in a car park in the Stewardstown area of Belfast, 1977.
Joseph (Joe) McDonnell: died in the 1981 hunger strike.
right:
Laura Crawford: died when a bomb that she was carrying exploded prematurely, 1975
Mairead Farrell: shot dead in Gibraltar by the English Special Air Service (SAS), in 1988. 
Patricia Black: died when an improvised explosive device she was carrying detonated prematurely near London, 1991.
Bridie Quinn: died in 1988.

The mural was first painted in 1996.

No freedom until women's freedom

Beechmount Avenue, Belfast 2015

This mural was painted on 2014 for celebrating the 100 year anniversary (“céad bliain”) of the Cumann na mBan (League of Women), constituted on the 2nd of April 1914.

The role of the group was very important during the Easter Rising of 1916 when the members were involved in the occupation of several places.

The main figure in the mural is Countess Markievicz, an Irish politician, member of the IRA. During the Rising in Dublin, she occupied Stephen's Green for the six days of the Rebellion.

In December 1918, she was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, and from 1919 and 1922 she was also one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position (Minister of the Labour for the Irish Republic).

See some old photos of the women of Cumann na mBan here. More info on the mural (of this and of others in Belfast) can be found in the blog of Extramural Activity.

In the mural “Cnamb” stands for Cumann na mBan and “Ní saoirse go saoirse na mban” in Irish means No freedom until women's freedom.

The Ballymurphy Massacre

Massacres leave deep scars in the victims' families but also in the entire society.

Each country unfortunately has its own.

As Italian, I am thinking to the Ustica Massacre on the 27th of June 1980, to the Bologna Massacre of the 2nd of August 1980 ...

And also Northern Ireland has its own....

The Ballymurphy Massacre began on the morning of Monday 9 August 1971. On that day the British Government introduced the so-called Interment Without Trial, within the Operation Demetrius: the plan was to arrest and imprison without charge or trial anyone suspected to belong to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

In a period on three days, 600 British soldiers entered the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast and hundreds of people were taken, most of them innocent, unarmed civilians. 11 of them were killed during these three days by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment. Amongst them, there was a 45 year old mother of eight children.

According to the families of the victims no investigations were carried out and no member of the British Army was held to account.

The same regiment went months later in Derry (30 January 1972) and it is considered responsible of similar events, known as Bloody Sunday killings.



Divis Street, Belfast 2015

The Ballymurphy Massacre 

Royal Television Society Award Winning Documentary 2013
FFresh Best Documentary 2013
NAHEMI Best in Festival 2013

Five friends, died for the same ideal

Divis Street, Belfast 2015



Danny McAreavey, IRA member, shot dead by British soldiers on 6 October 1972
Joe McKinney, IRA member, died on 10 October 1972 when a bomb that he was assembling exploded prematurely
Jimmy Quigley, IRA member, shot dead by British soldiers on 29 September 1972
John Donaghy, died on 10 October 1972 when a bomb that he was assembling exploded prematurely
Patrick Maguire (real name Patrick Pendleton), died on 10 October 1972 when a bomb that he was assembling exploded prematurely.

The Mother
by Padraic Pearse


           I do not grudge them: Lord, I do not grudge
           My two strong sons that I have seen go out
To break their strength and die, they and a few,
In bloody protest for a glorious thing,
They shall be spoken of among their people,
The generations shall remember them,
And call them blessed;
But I will speak their names to my own heart
In the long nights;
The little names that were familiar once
Round my dead hearth.
Lord, thou art hard on mothers:
We suffer in their coming and their going;
And tho' I grudge them not, I weary, weary
Of the long sorrow---And yet I have my joy:
My sons were faithful, and they fought.