PUL

Lucky Fives

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The slot machine last year came up with a 55 Scottish league title for Rangers and Rangers fans across Belfast celebrated with stickers and flags (Let Us Shout Joyfully | Order Restored | 55 | F*ck Your Ten In A Row | Blues Brothers | We’re Back | Legends Never Die) and also the stencilled electricity box from Berlin Street, west Belfast (above) and the furniture and barrel (below) from Sandy Row, south Belfast. This year is not looking so good, as they are six points down with three games to go (SkySports).

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It’s On!

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Voters go to the polls today for the NI Assembly elections, with the potential for significant changes compared to previous years: a CNR party – Sinn Féin – is predicted to win the most seats and votes for the first time in the 100-year history of Northern Ireland (LucidTalk). Here is a third and final batch of electoral hoardings and placards (previously: What Did You Do In The Election? | Had Enough?). Above: SDLP hoping to “deliver” a Tiny Life “miracle baby”; second: UUP‘s “Northern Ireland deserves better” and Alliance‘s “Together we can”; third, (Lucozade,) SDLP “working” for west Belfast, IRSP “Demand better”, and Aontú “Life, unity, economic justice”. in CNR west Belfast; fourth, TUV‘s “Principle, integrity, strength”; fifth, the Socialist Party’s “We can’t live with capitalism” along with independent Elly Odhiambo (occasional columnist in Belfast Media publications) in south Belfast. Not included here are Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Green Party, the PUP and the DUP.

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At Home And Abroad

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Two types of mourner at the grave of a fallen WWI soldier: on the left, comrades in arms; on the right, members of the family they left behind.

Work on the mural began in December, 2021, but progress seems to have stalled. One of the bayonets is in outline as is the giant poppy overheard. The effect is that the scene seems to be taking place under the stars.

Ashmore Street, west Belfast

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Had Enough?

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The NI Assembly election is this day week (Thursday May 5th). Here is another gallery of electoral posters. Where last week’s selection included a Noah Donahoe placard in electoral style, this weeks’ includes one for New Life City Church (ig), again in the style of an electoral candidate: “He’s not after your vote, he’s after your heart.” Also shown are: (above) TUV’s ‘don’t hope; vote’; Sinn Féin’s “Time for real change” on top of a “spoil your vote” stencil; the PUP’s “country before party” with anti-woke independent Tony Mallon’s “We the people”; and last, Neil Moore of the Socialist Party “We can’t afford this system” (namely, capitalism).

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Welcome To Tudor Lodge

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Tudor Place (the street) is now simply the top end of Crimea Street, but in years past it was physically separated and accessible only from the Crumlin Road. The reason for that seems to be that in the 1800s it was the grounds of a lodge, called Tudor Lodge. The nursery school is on the site of the old lodge (which is not the lodge known as Old Lodge) and takes its name.

(Not to be confused with the Tudor Lodge bar on the Shore Road – see Sinn Fein Toadies and Standing Stone)

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In Memory Of Those Who Died

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This mural – which perhaps memorialises the RUC in particular – has evidently been rolling since 1984 and the two different styles of house and brick (in the image below) explain its longevity – it’s in a narrow alley between two different stages of construction on Sydney Street West, initially to where the old Harrybrook Street used to be and then extended out to Snugville Street.

Some other murals blocked out (and so preserved) by new construction: Tomorrow Belongs To Us | Say No To Blow

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Stronger Together

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Here’s a complete set of the lettering on all the shutters of the Spectrum Centre without any cars on either the Shankill Road or Tennent Street!

There might be a connection to Stronger Together NI (Fb) – get in touch if you can confirm.

Art probably by CAP (Fb) and/or Vault (Fb).

More street art on the Spectrum Centre: Not Today, Satan. Not Today | White Dove | Blue Tit | Half Human

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Gone But Not Forgotten

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Robert Dougan was commander of the UDA South Belfast Brigade and lived Oranmore Drive (BelTel). He was killed by the IRA on February 10th, 1998 while sitting in a car outside Balmoral Textiles in Dunmurry, which led to a month-long expulsion of Sinn Féin from the peace talks taking place at the time (L.A. Times); two months later the Good Friday Agreement was signed. There had been attempts on his life in 1993 and 1994 (Irish Times).

The plaques, from left to right, are to Rodney McBride (1996), Alec Legge (2007), Jim Bradshaw (2008), Robert Dougan (1998), Greg Bradshaw (2014), David Pollock (2015). Harry Haggan (2010), William Stevenson (2008).

Tildarg Avenue. There is a mural to Dougan on Sandy Row – see Everyone’s Friend.

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Is Your Home Worth Fighting For?

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“… It will be too late to fight when the enemy is at your door.” In 1914, at the time of the Larne gun-running – see the mural in the second image and (previously) Amazing Night At Larne – the enemy was the threat of Home Rule and its enforcement by British Army forces and RIC that would remain under British control for at least three years after the commencement of home rule (Home Rule And Ulster’s Resistance p. 9). A bill to amend home rule by excluding some or all of the Ulster counties was introduced in July, 1914 (WP), but both Home Rule and the amendment were put aside when the Great War began; the enemy of Unionists then became the Central Powers. The contemporary enemy is the NI Protocol and Brexit, with the powers in Westminster again suggesting a separation of Britain and (Northern) Ireland.

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SNP Out

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The SNP [Scottish National Party] became the largest party in the Scottish parliament in 2007 and went from 6 Westminster seats in 2010 to a completely dominant 56 (of 59) in 2015. It spearheaded a referendum in 2014, which was defeated 55% to 47% (WP). Scottish independence is again included in the manifesto of the SNP – though it has not committed to a specific date on account of the Covid pandemic – and as such the SNP remains a threat to the integrity of the UK that Northern Ireland unionists espouse. Hence this sticker on the Shankill Road, even though the SNP does not stand any candidates in NI elections.

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