Here are three images from Cluan Place, the PUL street at the bottom of the (CNR) Short Strand in east Belfast. The first two show the flags and bunting in the street, flying from railings, light-poles, and chimney pots. In the third image, crosses have been added to the board at the entrance to the street featured previously Hard Hats Must Be Worn.
“Education is our passport to the future. Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” This ‘parachute cloth’ mural, which promotes education over gangs, joins three UVF murals in Pine Street, Donegall Pass, south Belfast. (For two of those murals, see Defenders Of The Pass | South Belfast UVF 2nd Batt.)
Northern Ireland take on Wales in the Euro 2016 football championship after qualifying for the knockout stage with a 2-0 win over Ukraine, with goals by Gareth McAuley (featured in the mural) and Niall McGinn.
“Ballymacarrett” comes from Baile Mhıc Gearóıd — MacGarrett’s townland. “Harland” comes from Edward Harland, who bought the shipyard in 1858 and later partnered with Gustav Wolff to form Harland & Wolff.
The saying “You’re never too old to set another goal or dream another dream” is attributed to east-Belfast-bred C.S. Lewis — shown here on the right — though we are unable to find any record of him saying or writing these words; instead it might be be a motivational speaker called Les Brown. In the rest of the piece, young people play in the grounds of Queen’s University and Belfast City Hall.
As can be seen above and in the two detail shots, below, the words “hope” and “life” are painted into the two sides of the waterfall that runs down the gable wall in the Clandeboye Street community garden in east Belfast beneath swallows and cherry trees. Painted by Friz (Web | Fb | Tw) in 2015. The final shot shows the similar palette of colours in the railings along the Newtownards Road.
A boy in blue and girl in green, from opposite communities in east Belfast, shake hands against the backdrop of the Harland & Wolff cranes. The poem “No More” in the middle of the mural is by community worker Jim Wilson, whose grandson Dylan is shown on the left. A smaller version of this mural, without the poem, is in Short Strand’s Edgar Street – see No More.
No more bombing, no more murder No more killing of our sons No more standing at the grave side Having to bury our loved ones
No more waking up every hour Hoping our children, they come home No more maimed or wounded people Who have suffered all alone
No more minutes to leave a building No more fear of just parked cars No more looking over our shoulders No more killing in our bars
No more hatred from our children No more. No more. No more!
This notice is on the outside of the Belvoir Bar in east Belfast: “Property of east Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force – Not for sale” alongside a plaque to “fallen comrades” Robert Bennett, Roy Walker, Joseph Long, James Cordner, and Robert Seymour. It seems that the bar has been shuttered since 2011 (Belfast Telegraph | Irish Times).
Stanislaw Sosabowski — who appears in the apex of this new mural in east Belfast — survived the first World War (fighting for Austria-Hungary), the occupation of Poland in 1939, and escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp before crossing Europe and taking command, in Britain, of the 1st Polish Paras. The unit fought in Operation Market Garden at the Battle Of Arnhem. (WP | Polish Heritage Society for a booklet of text and images)
His memoirs have been published as Freely I Servedand interviews about his service were collected for a film called A Debt Of Dishonour (youtube) – the title comes from the fact that Sosabowski was blamed for the failure of the Operation, perhaps as a bargaining tactic in negotiations between Britain, Russia, and Poland.
Across the middle of the mural are airmen from the 303 Polish Squadron, which was celebrated in a Shankill mural last year: Love Demands Sacrifice. In the foreground is a modern British paratrooper in field gear.
For images of the launch last week, see WWIIPolesNI.
Extramural Activity 