Crom Abú

O’Donovan Rossa GAC (web | tw | Fb) dates back to 1916, just one year after the death of republican Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa (at whose funeral Padraig Pearse gave the oration – “The fools, the fools …”). “Crom abú” is a war-cry of the ancient FitzGeralds as they attacked the O’Donovan fortress at Crom, Co. Limerick. Some of those fleeing eventually settled in Rosscarbery, Co. Cork, which is where Jeremiah was born in 1831. The sword is a symbol of justice, the snake of wisdom.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04780 X04779

Free Yourself From Mental Slavery

This bleak and wintry scene, with snow about to fall, is of the garages between Shaws Road and Corrib Avenue. The words of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song echo Epictetus’s doctrine: “Free yourself from mental slavery – none but ourselves can free our minds”.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04778

Total Eclipse Of The Sun

“96” is the number of deaths in the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, in which Liverpool fans were crushed to death in Sheffield Wednesday’s stadium. In the days afterward, the Sun newspaper printed allegations that drunken fans attacked and urinated on rescue workers. The newspaper apologised in 2004 but hostility towards the paper persists, with some – as in this image – refusing even to spell it in full. The taxi was spotted in Beechmount. For more on the 2016 inquest, see Hold Your Head Up High.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04772

Choice

This striking art – perhaps an anti-drugs message? – is on the outside wall of the Turf Lodge Tenants’ Association & Social Club (Fb) – or simply “The Green Hut” – which served as a community centre during the Troubles. For a history, see the middle part of the NVTv programme The Edge Of The World.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04774 X04775 X04773

Make Some NOYS

Writing by London-/Derry aerosol artist NOYS (inst) in Belfast. A gallery of NOYS’s work was just featured on Bombing Science.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04626 kent st

David & Goliath

The Harland & Wolff cranes are called Samson and Goliath after two biblical giants. This miniature was spotted in a window in Castlereagh Place.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04761

Big Henry

Gareth “Big Henry” Morrison was a drummer in the Ulster First Flute band in Sandy Row and a Rangers supporter. He died at age 26 on June 23rd, 2013 from a dose of PMA (BelTel), one of eight such deaths in Northern Ireland and seven in western Scotland. (1997 image of a UFFB mural in Linfield Road.)

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04753 egmont gdns

St Joseph’s

Here are three stained glass windows from St Joseph’s in Sailortown. The designer of the glass is unknown – please get in touch if you know. The church was built in 1880 and has been idle since 2001; both the exterior (which we profiled in November 2017) and interior are in need of restoration. A plan exists to turn the building into a heritage centre (BMG).

For more church glass, see Townsend Street Presbyterian.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04472 X04473 X04474

My First Meat Wagon

Another PSNI land rover from Leo Boyd (webig) today. The first can be seen in “Nothing to fear, nothing to hide” from the summer of 2017; in this one, a new piece: a PSNI pedal car is “My first meat wagon”. Here is some of Leo’s previous work.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04766 Lwr North St

Nothing To Fear, Nothing To Hide

Here is a modified PSNI land rover from Leo Boyd (webinst): “Nothing to fear, nothing to hide” from the summer of 2017. See also “My first meat wagon“.

Here is some of Leo’s previous work.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04193 India St