SAOR Uladh – or Soar Uladh as they were calling themselves on this wall in Lenadoon for a while – are inviting us to join our local unit. Squinter will come clean and say that he didn’t know Saor Uladh existed, much less that they had a unit in Lenadoon.
A bit of homework reveals that they were a republican splinter group from the 1950s who went their own way because they thought the IRA didn’t go to Mass enough. If Squinter’s got that wrong he’s sure the Saor Uladh press office will get on to him.
What the relevance of 1950s Pomeroy parish politics is to the Lenadoon of the 21st century is not entirely clear to Squinter or his Lenadoon pals and neighbours. What the group is doing, or intends to do, is even less apparent, although like every good republican micro-group they have managed to smuggle into the country significant amounts of paint and brushes and they can and will use them. Once they get the spelling right the sky’s the limit.
Anyway, Squinter’s favourite bit of misspelt graffiti remains ‘RUC tots will be shot’, although as someone on Twitter pointed out, there’s no guarantee that they meant to write ‘touts’. Another tweet points out that near Whiteabbey train station there’s another cracker that reads ‘Fiennians out’. And as the SDLP announces a large fundraising drive to smarten up their press operation, Squinter is reminded that typos are not only to be found on the walls of this here pravince. How well Squinter remembers the press release he received once from the Stoops claiming that the PUP was ‘UTV-linked’. Suddenly the Romper Room connection was all-too clear.
