You’ll Find Us In The Walk

19 towns and cities will hold gatherings for the Twelfth, with the longest parade being the six miles from Carlisle Circus to the field at Barnett Demesne (near Shaw’s Bridge) in Belfast. Today’s images come from a Shankill parade at the end of June, with (above) the (Shankill) Sons Of Ulster (Fb) and (below) the Billy Boys (Rathcoole) (Fb).

For a complete list of gatherings, see Belfast Live

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Belfast Beacons

11 “beacons” are being lit across Belfast this evening, an increase over the eight from last year (Belfast Live). They are re-usable metal frames filled with willow wood (above a base of pallets) and sit on a bed of sand in order to avoid scarring the ground (BBC). The name evokes the beacons lit in the hills of Antrim and Down that allowed King William’s forces to land at Carrickfergus in 1690; the practice of lighting bonfires for festivals goes back to pagan times (Gailey).

Rather than being collected by the local commuinity, the materials are provided by a City Council programme now in its fifteen year of operation; the cost of the beacons this year is 81,000 pounds (BelTel). For discussion of the beacons (and the wider bonfire programme), see this Slugger article.

The two beacons shown here are in Woodvale (above) and Brown’s Square (below). For the Herbie McCallum memorial, see Some Day Soon We’ll Proudly March On Parade.

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Ballysillan Road Bonfire

On the Ballysillan Road at the bottom of Kilcoole Park.

The stencils of King Billy have appeared all over Tyndale and down onto the Ballysillan Road outside the Boys’ Model.

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Tiger’s Bay Twelfth 2023

The kerb-stones along the Edlingham Street (Duncairn Avenue) entrance into Tiger’s Bay have been repainted in preparation for this year’s Twelfth and the two pillars given bands of red, white, and blue.

The bonfire is on the waste-ground at Adam Street. The fact that the land is owned by the Department Of Infrastructure made the bonfire controversial in 2021 (see Move At Your Own Risk).

For the mural in the community garden, which now appears defunct, see Seek And You Shall Find.

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Sea-Born

Lí Ban became a mermaid – half-human, half-salmon – after a year spent living in an underwater bower, taking shelter from the family’s uncovered spring that overnight formed Lough Neagh. Three hundred years later (circa 558 A.D.) she told an envoy of Saint Comgall’s who was on his way to Rome, that she would come ashore at Larne a year later. She forwent another 300 years of sea life in favour of being baptised and dying immediately. She was baptised by Comgall, the abbot of Bangor, and christened “Muirgen” (sea-born) and was buried in the Lough Derg (Donegal) abbey (O’Grady | WP). Muirgen’s feast-day is January 27th (Sacred Sisters).

Painted by Friz (ig) for the Bangor Seaside Revival Festival, with support from Seedhead Arts (ig).

For a different style of presentation of Lí Ban, see Shaped By Sea And Stone in Larne. The end of the story is similar to the fate of the children of Lear, who spend 900 years as swans before a monk hears their song, puts them (willingly) in chains, but in protecting them from others touches them, which restores them to human form only for (baptism and) death to follow immediately. (See The Children Of Lear.)

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Still Saying No

“Say ‘No’ to Irish Sea border.” The graffiti and placards have tapered off as the DUP’s rejection of Brexit’s NI Protocol – and the later Windsor Framework and its “Stormont brake” – and refusal to take their seats in Stormont approaches 18 months (Bel Tel | Reuters | Belfast Live). A poll from Queen’s last week found 61% in favor of the trading agreements (BelTel).

This piece of anti-Protocol graffiti is still rolling in New Mossley.

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The Vault Is Empty

The Vault artists have cleared out of the old Met building in Tower Street and have been preparing their two new digs, in the Shankill Mission (Vault ig | FGB ig) and Marlbourough House in Victoria Street. The vestiges of their time in east Belfast linger on.

For the final image in better days, see Do You Own A Giant Building?

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Scottish Brigade

The hand-painted UVF Scottish Brigade mural (see Boab Kerr) in Beechfield Street/Tower Street has been replaced by this new printed board. The plaque to Kerr has been retained, but four names have been added – David Totten, Brian Milligan, Billy Inglis, and Jim Holt, who is now the most prominent. Holt died in February 2021 (ACT Fb).

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Aether

Here is a gallery of images from last week’s project to repaint a long wall at the Oval in east Belfast – about 14 young people took part, assisted by sprayers from 5th Element (ig), with sponsorship from the Rio Ferdinand Foundation, Glentoran FC, and Choice Housing (Belfast Live).

For more 5th Element, see A Brighter Day.

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Type 24 Pillbox

During the second World War, six basic designs for pillboxes, numbered from ‘Type 22’ to ‘Type 27’ were promulgated by the division of Fortifications And Works as part of anti-invasion planning (WP). This Type 24 is still standing in a corner of the Oval grounds in east Belfast. This image – showing the door – is of the rear of the pillbox; the anticipated line of attack was along Belfast Lough.

“The Oval’s Type-24. In the early hours of the 5th of may the German Luftwaffe (air force) attacked a number of targets in the heart of Belfast. This ‘Type 24’ military pillbox was one of the defence positions around the city which was manned on that morning by a platoon of soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment who were based at nearby Victoria Park. … The Oval, the home of Glentoran Football Club was reduced to smouldering rubble as bombs and incendiary mines landed on an area perceived by German intelligence to be an oil storage facility adjacent to both Harland and Wolff shipyard and Short Brothers aircraft factory.”

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