PUL

Shankill Parade

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The Shankill Area Social History (SASH) (Fb) celebrates the people and events of the Shankill Road with a new mural in Downing Street.

From left to right: girls wrapped in Union Flags watching the parade; boys on pallets; the Shankill Mission; Orange Order parade; the Summer festival in Woodvale Park (The Cabin); the former Belfast Savings Bank, now an undertaker’s; the Winter festival and switching-on of the Christmas tree lights, with Mrs. Claus, the Grinch in Santa jacket and hat, and last year’s (2022) celebrity guest Charlie Lawson (youtube); local band Casual Riots (ig). (SASH Fb Gallery)

For a mural of famous Shankill faces and places, see Save The Shankill.

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Model Learner

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This is a new mural on the Ballysillan Road by MWAK/Pigment Space (ig) close to the Boys’ Model and featuring a student at the centre of symbols of learning – a film camera in the top left; Hokusai’s Great Wave in the top right, for art; Titanic (for engineering?) and a thermometer (for chemistry? or global warming?) on the right; musical notes in the bottom right; sports in the bottom left. The dates on the left are obscure. “1971” is perahps for the year the school won the Schools’ Cup in rugby (News Letter); there is a soccer ball next to “1996” but no similar victory can be found – get in touch if you can supply a meaning.

Replaces the Alternatives mural seen in Our Wee Country and No Alternative.

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Guillemot

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The guillemot is distinctive for its red “gape” (inside of mouth). It spends most of its time on and around water but nests on cliff ledges and other remote spaces in May (BirdWatchIreland). The pointed shape of the egg makes it less likely to fall off cliffs (British Birds). They have been nesting in Bangor since at least 1911 (Geograph). If you can’t spot any at the marina, you can check out this mural by Dan Leo (ig) in nearby Victoria Road.

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The Sun Never Sets

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“For God and Ulster” (as seen on the bucket hat) is the more common slogan of the of the Ulster Volunteers, but “For King and Empire” (as seen on the shirt) was occasionally used, as on the colours of Central Antrim’s 3rd battalion (Sam’s Flags | see also The Central Antrim Regiment). The phrase also appears on a plaque outside Carrickfergus Orange hall – see On Foreign Fields.

The items are for sale in the Shankill Historical Society in the middle Shankill. The shop is at least 25 years old.

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You’ll Know Us By Our Noise

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The “Lambeg drum” is named for the village near Lisburn, perhaps invented there to celebrate a visit by King Billy (LAD), or perhaps because it was there that the (already existing) drum was played with canes (WP).

As can be seen from these images, the drums are extemely large – three feet in diameter – which makes them difficult to use in parades, as does their immense noise (up to 120 dB); they are more frequently seen on their own at drumming displays such as this one on the Shankill yesterday (July 11th).

See also: Lambeg drums in Glynn last year (2022) in While I Live I’ll Crow.

For the King William railings, see Let Ambition Fire Thy Mind.

For the Clyde Valley, see An Astounding Achievement.
For Robert Quigg, see Victoria Crosses Of The 36th (Ulster) Division.

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You’ll Find Us In The Walk

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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