Belfast

Stewart’s Yard

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02988 2015-09-03 Stewarts Yard+

As the sign says, the area of what is now an Iceland supermarket on the Shankill Road was, at the time of World War I, a training ground for the Ulster Volunteers. The sign was erected to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the force, which then became the Ulster Volunteer Force which served in the war. “On the first day of enlistment for the West Belfast UVF, volunteers assembled at Stewart’s Yard in the Shankill Road. They were addressed by Colonel T. E. Hickman, the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton and a senior UVF figure who had become the Recruiting Officer for the whole of Ulster. Joining Hickman were James Craig MP, plus Stewart Blacker Quin, who was the Unionist candidate for West Belfast and the commander of the 1st Battalion West Belfast UVF.” (Richard S. Grayson, Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in First World War, p. 12) “The day following the opening of enlistment for the Division, 360 men assembled at the same yard, where after being presented with a box of cigarettes, they marched to the railway station to board trains for Donard Camp near Newcastle. These men became the corps of the 9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.” (Bygone Days)

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02988

When Urban Love Goes Wrong

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03254 2016-01-20 Urban Love+

A Belfast Love Story by Leo Boyd (Tumblr | Belfast Print Workshop and see previously: Big Men Wail Hammers | Oh You Pretty Thing): “I love this city but doesn’t love me back”, says our heroine, standing in front of Belfast City Hall!

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03254 garfield st

We Must Share The Responsibility

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03247 2015-12-20 Common Sense+

UDA commander John McMichael was also secretary of the New Ulster Political Research Group (NUPRG), a think tank of the UDA/UFF. The group argued for an independent Northern Ireland (based in part on beliefs about a separate Ulster ethnic identity – see the Visual History page on Cú Chulainn) in two documents, 1979’s Beyond the Religious Divide and 1987’s Common Sense (available at CAIN), promoting the philosophy of ‘Ulster nationalism’, depicted here by the free-floating Northern Ireland. McMichael ran unsuccessfully for the Belfast South seat after the murder of Robert Bradford (see To Bathe The Sharp Sword Of My Word In Heaven).

“As John McMichael stated before his untimely death, we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and share the responsibility of maintaining good government. He left us hope.”

Here’s a link to an image (from @conflictNI) of McMichael at the launch of Common Sense in 1987.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03247 X01585 [X01583] [X01584] [X01586] [X01587] lemberg st

Belfast Calling

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03196 2015-11-19 Belfast Underground Records+

The mural on the shutters of Belfast Underground Records (Web | Fb) reproduces the cover of the album London Calling by The Clash. Vinyl records, and, since September 2015, a radio station with live streaming from the booth!

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03196 queen st

The Mainspring

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03275 2016-02-03 MacDiarmada+

Seán Mac Dıarmada was born in Leitrim, left for Glasgow at age 15, but after two years returned to Belfast in 1905 (working on the trams) and – according to the new mural above – spoke from the back of a coal lorry in Clonard Street, outside the Clonard branch of the Ancient Order Of Hibernians. Mac Dıarmada was for a short time an AOH member, before moving on to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, which led to his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising and execution on May 12th of that year.

The title of today’s post is historian F.X. Martin’s assessment of Mac Dıarmada, quoted in a pamphlet on Mac Dıarmada from the National Library Of Ireland, which includes reproductions of letters from and about Mac Dıarmada. The NLI made more letters available today (2016-02-08). (See also this Irish Times write-up).

Previously: A 2013 Mac Dıarmada mural in Ardoyne.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03275 clonard st quigley’s coal merchants séan executed by the british for his role

Over A Barrel

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03228 2015-12-20 Orange Barrel+

Here is a snapshot from the protest camp at Twaddell Avenue, established in July 2013, which remains in place at the junction with the Crumlin Road. The most recent newspaper mention of the protest appears to be this December 29th report in the Newsletter.

For more, including the “civil rights” board behind the barrel, see Twaddell Protest Camp | Civil Rights Camp | Supporters Club | Let Them Home.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Don’t Ever Give Up!

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03273 2016-01-30 RNU Lifeline+

Positive thinking in a suicide-prevention poster from the Republican Network for Unity (RNU) in Ardoyne: Place your hand over your heart, can you feel it? This is called purpose! Your’re [sic] alive for a reason! … Don’t ever give up

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03273 berwick rd

Free Wee Rab

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This graffiti is in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast:  “UFF – Free Wee Rab”. If you know who Wee Rab is or how he is being constrained, please e-mail or comment!

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03222 X03223 legann st

Derryrhoea

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03251 2016-01-14 Derryrhoea+

Here is the latest political comment from TLO (we assume): DUP member and former Minister for Culture, Arts, and Leisure Gregory Campbell – MLA for East Londonderry– is shown suffering from “Derryrhoea”. In the upper posters, his hair is orange and tongue red, while in the lower poster he appears to be seeing and thinking feces. Campbell has been twicebarred from speaking in the Assembly in the last 15 months.

Previously by TLO: Demonizing Paisley, Three Studies Of Ian Paisley, and Ian Jong-un, Wee Angel, Taking The Hump

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03251 hill st

Save The Shankill

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03151 2015-10-20 Rangers Supporters Club d above+

Here is the second of two boards outside the Ulster Rangers Supporters Club (see also Doing Her Duty). The painting features a tram going under an Orange arch between the public baths on one side an Spin-A-Disc records on the other, surrounded by notable figures from the Shankill area.

Many thanks to Johnny Dougan of Shankill Area Social History (Fb) for the information below! Please e-mail or add a comment with additions or corrections.

Front, from left to right: Manchester United and Northern Ireland Soccer player Norman Whiteside (WP) and behind him boxer Davy Larmour and community worker Saidie Patterson (see WRDA), boxer Sammy (Cisco) Cosgrove, Senator Charlie McCullough (WP), Tommy Henderson, boxer Jimmy Warnock (original photograph here), Hugh Smyth (see previously Third Class Citizens), artist William Conor (see previously Conor’s Corner, Jack Henning (running), musician Belter Bell, writer Albert Haslett (Northern Visions interview).

Atop the tram: on the left is Jackie Redpath of the Save the Shankill Campaign (note other members of the group with placard on right; Northern Visions has a documentary about the Save The Shankill campaign) and Jack Higgins holding his book The Eagle Has Landed (WP). Up there too is Miss Sands, the music teacher in the Girls Model School, and historian Bobby Foster (Northern Visions interview). On the stairs are May Blood MBE and above her D.I. Nixon.

03149 2015-10-20 Rangers Supporters Club w+

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03151 X03149 shankill rd spin-a-disc public baths