Posters on a drainpipe on the Falls Road next to Gerry Carroll’s constituency office: “Keep Stormont closed. Smash Stormont – It can’t be made more equal, less corrupt or used to promote socialism. Close it now! Sign the petition … Published by Socialist Democracy.”
With “Saol trí Ghaeilge [atá uainn]” below [We want life using Irish].
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2017 update on the 2016 #BuildHomesNow stencil in the New Lodge from the PPRProject, detailing the shortage of housing. “Waiting for a home: 2458. Homes built: 112”.
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This Ardoyne hoarding for Saoradh the “revolutionary republican party ” (web | fb), uses a pike (for 1798 Rebellion), the Sunburst (traditionally used by Fıanna Éıreann), and the Starry Plough (from the Irish Citizen Army of the Easter Rising). Cut off at the top is a red star of socialism.
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Derry swimmer Liam Ball represented Ireland at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics in Mexico and Munich. He died in 1984 at age 33 and is remembered on the wall of local heroes at Creggan shops. There are five other portraits – of James McLean, Tony O’Doherty, David McAuley, Charlie Nash, and Aileen Reid – painted by Karl Porter and Donal O’Doherty from UV Arts.
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The Young Citizen Volunteers began as a civic organisation and domestic reserve force in 1912 but by the time of the first World War had become a battalion of the Ulster Volunteers and went to the Western Front as the fourteenth battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, part of the 36th (Ulster) Division, landing at Boulogne in October, 1915. The force was mainly Protestant but History Hub Ulster has a page on the 42 Ulster Catholics who served in the 14th (YCV) RIR.
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Here is a final small board from Derry/Doıre reproducing or at least hearkening back classic images of the armed republican campaign. This one shows a hooded volunteer brandishing an assault rifle. Previously: Sniper At Work | Join The People’s Army | Beır Bua | Behind Bars | éıstıgí | IRA
In the background is an “End British Internment” IRPWA (prisoner welfare) board – a straight shot can be found in the Peter Moloney Collection.
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As mentioned in an entry about Dalaradia, the HUBB community centre (web | Fb) in north Belfast has, since 2010, been based in what used to be a World War II Civil Defence air-raid shelter, which it cleaned and renovated (Tele). The original hall is depicted in this mural on the side of the HUBB. Belfast was bombed by the Germans four times in April and May of 1941.
In 1940, Belfast was protected by thirty-eight anti-aircraft guns. The German Luftwaffe flew a reconnaissance flight over Belfast on November 30th, 1940 and a test mission of eight planes on April 7th, 1941 concluded that Belfast’s defences were, “inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient” (Elaine Hogg/Glenravel History). 150 bombers would blitz Belfast the following week, on Easter Tuesday, April 15th, and the seven guns that had been in operation ceased firing, believing, falsely, that RAF planes were also in the sky (WP).
In the blitz of Easter Tuesday, 1941, more than 900 people died, 1,500 were injured, and half the houses in Belfast were damaged (WP). According to Elaine Hogg’s research in the ‘Darker Side Of Belfast’ series, 100,000 people left the city in the remainder of the month, due to shock, fear, and the squalid conditions and unruly behaviour that followed the bombing.
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The river in question is the Farset, which in the late 1700s was still open in what was then the Back-Of-The-River area and is now Bank Square. It was all covered over by 1804.
The 2015 installation of ‘life in the old days’ panels is by Annemarie Mullan, Stephen Mackey, and King Street Arts, presenting street scenes inspired by “information from the 1898 census” (CultureNI | Love Belfast).
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“Don’t huff, don’t puff – stay away from that stuff.” The three little piggies give the big bad wolf some grief for his “dope” habit. The message is directed at the kids in the Fortwilliam Youth Centre in Mount Vernon. “You only live once.”
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Sandy Row is “steeped in 400 years of tradition”, according to Historic Sandy Row (and sister site Sandy Row Community Forum which has developed a “growth strategy” for the area). Some of that history is presented at the junction with Hope Street, one each for Buildings & Housing, People, Industry, Culture, and History.
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Extramural Activity 