PUL

The Pictures

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“Artist Daniela Balmaverde has worked with older members of the local community to reminisce and to appreciate those from North Belfast who have made an impact on our broader society. A multiplicity of initiatives has altered the face and conditions of life in this community with Re-Imaging making a positive contribution to a long-term process. The project was launched by the Lord Mayor on August 2009 This project was funded through the Re-Imaging Communities programme of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and delivered by Belfast City Council with the support of Lower Ormeau Road Resident’s Action Group. This project is supported by the Shared Communities Consortium.”

The figures in the mural include Buck Alec Robinson, Rinty Monaghan, Sam McAughtry, Sir James Galway, Dame Mary Peters, Norman Whiteside, and Wayne McCullough. The mural replaced is the one equating the American Confederates with the Ulster Covenant in Alliance Crescent.

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Update: 2022 shot of the blanked wall

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Shankill A-Z

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The Drumcree mural (2004 | 2008) is re-imaged in 2009 by this ‘Shankill A-Z’ board, designed by Lesley Cherry.

While bands get mentioned in three letters (“B” for “bands”, “D” for “drums” and “F” for “flutes”), “Unionism” is recast as “working-class ethics” and (perhaps the most striking “re-imaging”) under “X” it is claimed that the people of the lower Shankill voted for the Good Friday Agreement.

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Copyright © 2009 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Talavera 1809

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“The Bloody Battle, July 1809. Prince of Wales own Irish became the Royal Irish Fusiliers 1827, motto Quis separabit.”

Talavera de la Reina is southwest of Madrid, Spain. The French, who had invaded Portugal but been driven out by British forces under Wellesley, fought the combined forces of the Spanish (previously allies of the French in the Peninsular War) and British armies. The second battalion of the Prince Of Wales’s Irish fought at Talavera. It then became the Prince Of Wales’s Own Irish, the Prince Of Wales’s Own Irish Fusiliers, and finally the Royal Irish Fusiliers (after the prince had been king for seven years). Its motto seems to have been “Faugh A Ballagh” rather than “quis separabit” but sources are scarce.

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Loyalist H-Block Mural

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“Freedom 2000” – this mural commemorates loyalist prisoner kept in the H-Blocks. Previously, the left flank bore the letters UDA and the right flank UFF, with LPOW at the bottom of each (see M02473).

Hopewell Crescent, lower Shankill. Also seen in 2008.

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Copyright © 2009 Cathal Woods
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I Would Give My Right Hand …

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Legend has it that Ulster was won in a competition among warriors to be the first to touch the land. In order to win the race, one contestant cut off his hand and threw it ahead of the others. The flag of Northern Ireland (the Ulster Banner) is in the apex.

WP entry on the legend.

Shankill Parade, west Belfast.

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Here I Stand; I Can Do No Other

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The Protestant Reformation is here attempted as a re-imaging theme in the lower Shankill. Luther’s signature is worked into the “stained glass” on the left.

Below, the accompanying text … “Hier stehe ich, Ich kann nich anders, Gott helfe mir.” Martin Luther 1483-1546. Unhappy with many of the Catholic church’s practices, Martin Luther, a monk, wrote what became know as ‘the 95 theses’. These challenged the authority of the church and were spread quickly around Europe via a new invention, the printing press. Keen to get luther to recant, the general assembly of the Holy Roman Empire summoned Luther to the town of Worms on the Rhine in 1521. An unapologetic Luther is said to have uttered this famous phrase which, translated means ‘Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen’. Thus began the Protestant Reformation.”

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Gold Rush

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69 Gold Rush

From the info board, later added to the left: “The Gold Rush mural replaces a paramilitary image of two silhouetted gunmen representing Scottish Brigade. This new image by artist Tim McCarthy represents an event in July 1969 in Christopher Street when children digging in the rubble of the then demolished ‘Scotch Flats’ discovered a hoard of gold sovereigns. Word spread quickly and thus began ‘the Gold Rush’. The project was funded by the Re-imaging Communities programme of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and delivered by Belfast City Council with the support of the Lower Shankill Community Association. The project would not have been possible without the support and participation of the local community.”

There is a short series of BBC radio programmes on the finding of the sovereigns and how they came to be in the chimney.

With support from the Arts Council, Belfast City Council, and Lower Shankill Community Association. By Tim McCarthy/Verz in Hopewell Crescent, lower Shankill, Belfast.

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Copyright © 2009 Cathal Woods
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UDU-UFF-UDA

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This is a 2007? repainting of a lower Shankill mural placing Ulster Freedom Fighters/Ulster Defence Association (UFF/UDA) within the historical context of “a new organization entitled the Ulster Defence Association, the objects of which are to elect an assembly of 600 delegates, having authority to declare the policy and direct the action of the Ulster Unionists and to raise funds for the purposes of the organization from loyalists of all classes.” The motto of the organisation was “Quis separabit” (which is the same as the UDA’s).

The Union faded away in the 1910s, but the name was revived by the UDA in 2007.

The manifesto was launched on St Patrick’s day 1893, in response to the 2nd Home Rule bill. Membership was closed on June 1st, by which time 170,000 people had signed up. The newspaper source of the text is unknown; a similar newspaper article from the Tasmanian Daily Telegraph can be found here. The words “Ulster Defence Association” do not occur in the manifesto.

For more on Saunderson, see Union Is Strength.

The side wall is new, and other small changes were made during the repaint: “UFF member” was previously above the gunman and “Est.” was previously used instead of “Formed”.

The Orange Order mural in the background is here.

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member founded 1893 1972 ulster defence union

Play

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New ‘Play’ mural on Hopewell Crescent, painted by Ed Reynolds (steadyhanded.com), replacing the Can It Change? mural.

Two panels of text on the left-hand side-wall read “‘The young do not know enough to be prudent and therefore they attempt the impossible and achieve it … generation after generation’ – Pearl S Buck” and “‘Adults do not perceive children as a minority group but as helpless, inexperienced, defenseless young people who need protection … This attitude must be confronted, challenged and refuted if young people are to secure their political rights’ – Bob Franklin”

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