#belfast graffiti

[radicalgraff]

"Santa is a British Agent!"

Seen in West Belfast in 2009

[nando161mando]

Belfast, Nord Ireland @antifastreet

[degeneratedworker]

“Sold in South Africa, bought by MI5, supplied to UFF/UDA death squads“ Belfast 1992

[lordrahlprotects]

[leicadiary]

[inch-plant]

graffiti found in Belfast

[theadamantium]

Harri's Travel Photography // Belfast, Northern Ireland // July 2017

www.adamrharrison.com

[sillypomegranate]

belfast :)

[dandelioninajungle]

[poe-hall]

#streetart #streetartist #Wallart #graffiti #Belfast #northernireland #urbanart #Citylife (at Belfast, Northern Ireland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmeqWSHqqDh/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[baeddel]

on the racist riots in Belfast

i made a post in 2021 titled "dispatch on the unrest in Belfast" (click) trying to provide some local-knowledge context for the sectarian riots in town. i have no such special knowledge to offer this time. it has been, to be honest, shocking to me how many people came to them and how well organized they were. we have seen an increasing prevalence of anti-immigrant racism in the north in recent years; graffiti saying "locals only" (simple meaning: "whites only") on council houses going to market has been reported on since 2014 (click, 2018 click, 2023 click), for example. and in 2022 the PSNI released a report stating that hate crimes of every kind, including racist hate crimes, had reached the highest of any year since they began counting in 2004/5 (click). according to the BBC as of 2014 "on average a racially motivated offence takes place at least once a day" in Belfast (click) and it has only risen since that. but it was obviously not organized at this scale before. my girlfriend remarked that this was the first time Northern Ireland has had a race riot and i think, assuming we treat sectarian riots as something else, that may be true? (the UK-wide 1919 race riots did not seem to affect Ireland from what i could find and anyway were a bit before partition; otherwise they are quite similar to what is happening today).

perhaps no further context is really possible to give; they are race riots and they are happening because of racism. nevertheless i will try and write down some things i've thought about it.

in the 2021 post i talked about the nature of the disorder, where if you looked at the footage mostly people stood on the pavement and watched while the professionals—loyalist paramilitaries—handled the direct action (hijacking and burning busses and such). that is because these demonstrations were organized by the paramilitaries and everyone must obey them. that is not the case here; the crowds attack people of colour and immigrants, their homes or businesses owned by them, wherever they can find them. if they were kicked out of one area they went somewhere else and did it there; or else they did it where they lived as on Sandy Row. so it seems to be genuinely spontaneous and not directed from above.

the paramilitaries claim they did not organize it (the Belfast Telegraph quote what they call a 'senior loyalist' saying "[w]e didn’t start this, we aren’t behind it" click—what a demonstrative article, by the way, the police asking the paramilitaries for help with population control!). they say that about everything, but i think i believe them this time for that reason. it doesn't look paramilitary. i suppose whoever organized it must be taking orders from England. however, we are aware of at least some involvement by paramilitaries. the rightists who travelled up from Ireland were identified by PSNI and Gardaí to be fraternizing with UDA men (click). blueshirts associating with loyalists is not really surprising but i am not sure it has happened before. PSNI also claim there is a "paramilitary element" within the racist riots but are reluctant to say they're behind them (click).

i have talked before about how loyalism has felt a bit of a transition from an armed struggle into something that looks like a popular movement, with demonstrations and direct action becoming the main source of spectacle. it's possible there is a gradual transition towards this point, where paramilitary hierarchy becomes secondary to a spontaneously organized reactionary movement.

it also fits into a pattern that i have talked about before (click, also here), which is that democracy in the north has undergone dramatic changes recently. whereas in the past the national conversation dominated politics, today ordinary issues of civil society are decisive. the DUP lost their monopoly on unionist voters because of how they handled COVID, the border, the cost of living and so forth—problems a normal political party is expected to solve, not a party holding down a sovereignty under siege as they were supposed to be—and that's why SF got the majority. immigration is one such 'normal' political issue, and racist violence breaks out in Belfast in a way that doesn't differ substantially to how it breaks out at the same time in a normal country like England.

speaking of the fracturing of the DUP, i felt that it was significant that we could name, as a precipitating event, the fracturing of the right wing parties in general. in the north of Ireland the DUP lost much of its support, but no single party could replace it; several unionist parties now leech its vote, while moderate unionists vote for Alliance. and in the recent election the Tories lost to Labour, but they also lost many seats to Reform. between SF and Labour we are in an era where for the first time in a long time the UK is governed by center left parties, meanwhile it is unclear what opposition has the mandate of the right-wing voter. this means that for a right wing person electoral party politics looks like an ambiguous, distant and unrewarding terrain of struggle. perhaps that is a background condition as to why racist propagandists have been able to mobilize so many people into joining these events.

something else that struck me as possibly a precipitating event is that for the better part of a year we've had extremely active and persistent organizing around Palestine in the UK, in terms of demonstrations, direct action and even in electoral politics (with several independent candidates who care about Gaza taking seats from Labour in the last election). thus, right-wing racists have seen news about pro-Palestine organizing almost every day for a long time. we know that here in the north when Palestinian flags are flown it isn't long before Israel flags are flown in response. i think it's possible to see the specifically anti-Islamic character of the riots as a kind of counter-revolution or reaction to Palestine.

those were the thoughts i had to share. on Friday 9th (today as i write this) there is a racist demonstration planned, as well as a counter-protest. the counter-protest is backed by NIPSA (a big NI union) as well as the Belfast City Council (! click), so perhaps it will be big. it starts at 4:30pm. stay safe.

[likeadevils]

Hey what events do you think Hits Different is about

i don’t really know? it seems safe to say they had a lot more off time then we knew about— at the very least a rough period while taylor was writing lover (yknow, miss americana, false god, afterglow, and me!). i could see it being about that rough patch, but i could also see it being later, in like summer 2021-ish, while they were living in belfast, cause there is that one “taylor swift threw up here!” graffiti on the street. but i think the more likely possibility is that it was an amalgamation of a bunch of little breakups with her projection of what would happen if they broke up for good— less of a single experience and more of a waking stress nightmare

[lordrahlprotects]

[hetagrammy]

This is such a neat little character touch considering all the street art and graffiti in Belfast, he’s so precious

[mrdirtybear]

A rather elegant graffiti beard photographed in Belfast City Centre. Photographer; Mr Dirty Bear.

[pedropascalunofficial]

Hmmmmm, it says anything....what kind of things do you like to do for fun???

Thanks for the ask. I don't usually do this so here goes. It's long but fuck it no one's asked before and maybe it'd be good bed time reading for insomniacs.

If I'm not managing my pinterest or taking care of my two kids then I'm usually working so I try to make the best of any free time I have. If it's just me and the kids, we usually visit parks, historical sites or the zoo. At home my eldest likes to watch My Froggy Stuff on Youtube. The presenter shows how to make doll furniture and accessories so we make our own pieces and watch Pedro's SNL on repeat. Her choice, not mine. It was funny the first 100 times, not so much anymore. She now does "the hospital voice". He has ruined my life😄

My husband travels for work a lot and studies so when we do have time together as a family we make the most of it. I live close to Dublin city and we're spoiled here for activities. It's full of museums, galleries, historical sites, parks and busy streets with live music. It sounds like I'm working for the tourism board but it's honestly an amazing place to live. If it's the 4 of us we can hit a restaurant, check out the buskers of Grafton Street, visit the Disney store, go to a museum and get lost in some woodlands all in a 4 hour trip door to door and for less than €100 so we do that regularly. Our last family day out was to the Game of Thrones studio tour which is in Northern Ireland. That's just 90 minutes away. (It's great but Pedro's costumes are in storage since the last tour with only accessories and weapon on show and Bella only showed for a few seconds in a VT so my kid was annoyed that neither Marcus Moreno or The Worst Witch got the appreciation they deserve). Again we're spoiled, my husband is from the North so we're regularly at GOT sites because his family live near by (Mourne Mountains, Tullymore Forest, Linen Mill Studios). I used to drink in Belfast when Pedro was there but I wasn't a fan of "Tits, Ass and Dragons" then or the tiny pub they used to hang out in. Or the dirty one with kegs for seats😆. I made bad decisions and yes, I hate myself for it now.

On the rare occasion we have time off together and we have babysitters, we'll go to a live gig followed by some booze in The Porterhouse and some Iranian food in Zaytoon. I'm not picky. We'll go to music, comedy, theatre, musicals, sport, a festival or trade shows. I'm spoiled for choice. Artists like to start their European tours here and the main venues are 30 mins away. The last gigs I was at were Counting Crows, Chris Rock, The Book of Mormon, Ireland v USA, Taste of Dublin and I collect whiskey, there are a few trade shows a year. (Sounds wanker-y but they're good investments. An annual release of a €180 bottle over 5 years can be sold as a collection for thousands should you need quick cash.)

If I need alone time, it's tough to find here. I can't stress that enough. Dubliners and visitors are generally super friendly and open so strangers will talk to you constantly and there's nowhere to hide. If I need to clear my head then it's headphones on, grab a smoke at the highest point I can reach in the city so I can take in the view. Walk the city looking for new graffiti by my favourite artists/collectives while listening to local bands (Fontaines DC, Thumper, Damien Dempsey, Dermot Kennedy, Tebi Rex, Denise Chaila, Wyvern Lingo), get some thai street food, watch some buskars (check out Allie Sherlock) on Grafton Street, get a pint in Keoghs, go to a few galleries before heading home to hide in my cabin to watch 70s and 80s movies.

My cabin is my other baby. I bought my house with the cabin in mind and finally had it installed it in 2020. It's a self contained apartment, is sound proof, has a 7.1 surround sound cinema and doubles as a gym. Sounds super wanker-y but it was another investment which is paying off when I rent it out sometimes. Eventually it will be an apartment for one of the kids when they're older and can't move out because of the chronic housing shortage we have in the city. We aren't indulgent in other ways so being able to watch old movies in 4k while cranking out a weeks worth of laundry and getting in some steps makes other sacrifices worth it.