East Belfast Protestant Boys (Fb) mural “dedicated to Gareth Keys” with the statement “Our message is simple: where our music is welcome, we will play it loud; where our music is challenged, we will play it louder.”
In the old Hemp Street, nearly opposite Derwent St.
Relatively recent (late 2011?) mural replacing an advertising hoarding in Derwent St. (Newtownards Rd.) remembering the first world war, immediately next to another commemorating the dead and injured of various attacks during the troubles. The panels of the mural on the right are in/on bricked-up windows.
Pictured in the centre of the mural is Captain Edward John “Ted” Smith – who, as captain of the ship, went down with Titanic after it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic – in between shipyard workers at Harland & Wolff, where the ship was built.
On the painted “plaque” to the left: “Her name is publicly announced in April 1908. Designation begins in March 1909. On May 31. 1911, the Titanic was launched here in Belfast, April 10, 1912. She left Southampton for New York. April 14, 1912 disaster struck in the North Atlantic ocean, 1523 people lost their lives in the disaster, 705 passengers and crew survived.”
At the bottom of the mural: “This mural is respectfully dedicated to the men, women and children who lost their lives in the waters of the North Atlantic on the night of April 14, 1912: to those who survived – whose lives from that night on were forever altered; and to those who built the Titanic [at Harland and Wolff]. We forget them not.”
The chair and shoes in the foreground of the David Ervine board are a bronze sculpture, shown above. There are a number of (sculpted) items on the seat of the chair: a ticket for the Titanic, a little (prayer?) book with a poppy on the cover, and a pipe.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, the whole is meant to symbolize the industrial and cultural heritage of the area and the pipe is David Ervine’s pipe. The pipe would also tie him to Gusty Spence (cited in this republican mural about collusion), who also smoked a pipe. The prayer book would be for Protestantism, the poppy for loyalism and service in WWI, and the ticket for the shipyard. As for the boots, they appear to be of a modern design, but are perhaps meant to symbolize the working class, today and yesterday.
Both the sculpture and the board are by Ross Wilson.
A view of the outside of the Orange Hall on Albertbridge Road (from three weeks ago), with flags and banners of the Queen and today’s Covenant celebrations. Here’s a piece from the Tele on Covenant celebrations in 1962, at the 50 year mark.