“PSNIRA Out” graffiti below the Holiday Inn in Sandy Row, Belfast.
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No Room At The Inn
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Bokefast
“Think before you drink” – broken bottles, broken loves, and broken lives in Seymour Hill. Help can be sought from the organisations on the adjacent board: FRANK, ASCERT, Community Addiction Team, FASA, and Daisy.
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Peace If Possible, Truth At All Costs
“Londonderry west bank loyalists” are “still under siege”, at first from two decades of “Republican violence” – “Between 1971 and 1991 the Protestant population of the Cityside declined by 83.4% as a result of Republican violence (Shirlow et al. 2005)” – hence the boarded- and dressed-up windows – and now from the “PSNI”.
(The words “as a result of Republican violence” are not included in the Shirlow article).
Fountain Street and Hawkin Street, in the Fountain, Londonderry.
Update: the wall was returned to its plain appearance by 2023-02-14 – see the final image, below
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Heeding The Call
“Where so ever, how so ever or whenever we are called upon to make our exit, we will do as proud men.” This is quite a different message from the one produced within the Rathcoole estate for the 50th anniversary of the Red Hand Commandos, which stated that despite its venerable age, the four Rathcoole companies of the RHC “Await In The Shadows“. (That mural also depicted the kneeling men with sticks (on the left of today’s mural) and the linked post also contains the original photograph.)
It’s not clear who or what within loyalism might call upon the RHC to stand down; loyalist rhetoric at the moment is full of anger at the protocol and warnings/threats about of a return to violence (e.g. BelTel | BBC).
For the use of “Lamh Dear Abu” as the slogan, see Ulster Says “Tá”.
O’Neill Road, Newtownabbey.
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A Return To Violence
Following yesterday’s east Belfast “Peace or proticol” graffiti, today we have “Peace or protocol – it’s your decision”, aimed at Leo Varadkar on the day that he again became Taoiseach (Irish Times) and repeating his words back to him from a speech in 2018: “The possibility of a return to violence is very real”. At that meeting, Varadkar was anticipating violence by anti-Agreement republicans in response to customs posts on the Ireland-Northern Ireland border, and brought a newspaper describing the death of four customs officials, two lorry drivers, and three IRA volunteers at a Monaghan post in 1972 (BelTel).
The authors of this poster are not known, but the parallel statement (mutatis mutandis) would be that anti-Protocol agents – perhaps the “young loyalists” that the UVF “can no longer contain” (UK Daily; see also RTÉ from November) – might return to acts of violence such as the 1974 “Dublin & Monaghan Bombings” that killed 33 people – in the background of the poster is part of a photograph (Irish News) of bomb damage in Talbot Street – if the Protocol’s “Irish Sea border” is not removed.
The instance of the poster shown in today’s post is on the edge of Tiger’s Bay, on North Queen Street; the posters have also been appearing in east Belfast: Newtownards Rd (at Templemore Ave tw; at Dee St tw) | Beersbridge Rd (reddit).
A group called Let’s Talk Loyalism greeted the new premier with a mock funeral in Dublin for the Good Friday Agreement; the flowers behind the coffin read “GFA is dead” (tw).
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Peace Or Protocol
Agriculture minister Edwin Poots’s directive to stop checks on goods coming from Britain to Northern Ireland – which did not come into practical effect – was struck down on Friday, and reverting the policy to what it was under the NI Protocol and Brexit deals. The High Court judge who handed down the decision did so on the grounds that Poots’s directive was politically motivated (BBC) – in other words, it was taken as part of the DUP’s opposition to the Protocol, which next (in February, 2022) involved collapsing the executive.
Sales from GB to NI increased 7% (about 1 billion pounds in value) in the year after the Protocol came into effect (BBC | BelTel) but money isn’t everything (the “erosion of our identity” is “non-negotiable“) and protests persist, offering the bargain of “the peace” (i.e. the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement) or “the proticol”. Efforts continue by the UK government to reach a new deal with the EU and/or to pass a bill allowing unilateral changes (News Letter).
Glenmore St and Gawn St, Belfast.
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The Earth Writes Upon The Sky
Two Larne trees: above, the tree mosaic at the Town Hall steps created by artist Janet Crymble (see previously Sports We Love), with support from Larne Renovation Regeneration, Larne Trader’s Forum, and Mid & East Antrim Borough Council (NIWorld); below, the “Armada Tree” that is purported to have sprung from a chestnut or chestnut seeds in the pocket of a dead sailor in the Spanish Armada – the tree fell over after 432 years in 2020, a victim of root disease (anglican.org), but is remembered by the board depicting it in Upper Main Street, Larne.
“Local legend has it that when the Spanish Armada was passing these shores in 1588, a sailor was washed up at Ballygally village, no doubt from one of the ships blown off course by gales. Locals were said to have taken the body and buried it in the graveyard of the picturesque St Patrick’s Church at Cairncastle. The ancient tree beside the chuch grew from one of the chestnut seeds that the sailor had in his pocket when he was buried. The tree has been analysed and found to date back to the sixteenth century, adding credence to the story.”
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That We May Live In Freedom
The old C Batt mural further up Hornbeam Road has long been painted over. It used the same line – “They gave their lives that we may live in freedom” – to remember Wesley Nicholl and Brian Morton. A plaque to Morton is now included on top of the new mural. “Brian Morton (Morty) killed in action 07/07/1997, a true Ulster patriot who gave his life in defence of his country. Feriens tego.” As with republican memorials, “active service” means that Morton was killed by a premature bomb exploding.
Previously on this wall: Queensway Flute Band.
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The Dead We Honour Here
“The dead we honour here made the noble sacrifice for a cause that should never be forgotten.” A new board has been added to the memorial to the Ulster Volunteers on the Newtownards Road at St Leonard’s Crescent (the old Newcastle Street) over the bricked-up windows of the Belvoir Bar (see previously Not For Sale). The annual parade of the Belvoir Somme Association took place at the end of September (youtube)
There is also a portrait of Carson (see the Paddy Duffy collection), moved up from its previous location on the corner of Welland Street. The UVF Band mural is to the right of the memorial: see The Great War and They Said We’d Never Last.
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Ulster’s VC Heroes david nelson ernest wright alexander william mcfadzean edmund de win richard annesley west hugh colvin james somers jams duffy robert morrow edward barry stewart bingham thomas hughes robert hill hanna robert quigg john spencer dunville eric norman frankland bell james crichton geoffrey st. george shillington cather james anson otho brooke john alexander sinton dedicated to the women of east belfast that served in wwi and wwii
The Great War And The Recent Conflict
“In remembrance of all those Ulster men and women from the greater Dunmurry area who died during the Great Wars 1914-18 and 1939-45. Also those men and women who died during the recent conflict. Lest we forget.” These are the same words as appeared on a plaque on the previous memorial, which included the Special Constabulary. In the background is a “Welcome to loyalist Seymour Hill” board with flags and poppies, along with a 2021 tarp reading “Seymour Hill says no to the Irish Sea border”.
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Extramural Activity 