“In memory of all taxi drivers – public and private – who were murdered by loyalists/British crown forces during the conflict serving their community through transport.” This is the side wall to a larger mural to black taxi drivers which has been in place since 2001, was repainted in 2011, and is again looking in rough shape.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Photography was still in its infancy in 1850 and would not appear in newspapers until the 1880s (LoC). Instead, newspapers used illustrations to bring their stories to life. This board in Ard An Lao (Ardoyne/Bone) – “An Gorta Mór [The Great Hunger] 1845-1851 – The Great Irish Famine” – combines three of them to serve as a background for other images and information.
On the left is Family Being Evicted From Their Home In Rural Ireland.
At the centre is Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field from the Illustrated London News. ILN images are a staple of Belfast muraling on the Great Hunger: they were previously used in 1995 (An tOcras Mór in the New Lodge), 1999 (Ireland’s Holocaust on the Whiterock Rd), 2002 (An Gorta Mór in Ardoyne). (Here is a list, with links, of all of the illustrations of Ireland in ILN from the period 1845-1852.)
On the right is food arriving from the USA in the famine of 1879-1880.
See also The Mass Graves Of Ireland.
See also the Visual History page on the Great Hunger in muraling.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Eimear’s Wish (web | tw) last night launched a fundraising and blood cancer awareness campaign selling gin with a bottle raffled to supporters attending the first Irish League match of the new seasons between Glenavon and Portadown; it has the support of many soccer, rugby, GAA, and bowling clubs – this is the tarp outside Seaview on the Shore Road, Belfast. “Crusaders FC & Eimear’s Wish working together to raise stem cell donor awareness in Northern Ireland and create hope for people with life threatening illness.”
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“This plaque commemorates the centenary of the Easter Rising and the sacrifice of all those men and women who took part. We will remember their unwavering stance against British imperialism and its rule. We will acknowledge their influence on following generations to continue their legacy. In particular we remember all those old republicans from within this area, the Bone, who campaigned through the decades to fulfill the aspirations of the 1916 combatants. (Con Colbert) An Irish martyr who came to be defined by his favourite phrase “For my God and my country” fought on Marrowbone Lane [Dublin], 1916″.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is an update of the Marie Le Bonn Memorial Garden in Ard An Lao/Ardilea, previously seen in 2013.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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After a ten year run, the Crusaders FC mural (2010 | 2012) has been reverted (1996 D00711 | 2002 J1204) to a UVF hooded gunman mural.
For the other recent murals, see Respect, heritage, culture and Defending Ulster From Gaelic Attacks.
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X08306 X08307 3rd battalion north belfast uvf
There is pressure to remove the Tiger’s Bay bonfire in Adam Street because it is built on Department Of Infrastructure land next to the Duncairn Gardens “peace” line and has been the site of anti-social behaviour such as golf balls being hit into the New Lodge (Irish News | BelTel). In response comes the message: “Move at your own risk – FTPSNI”.
A bonfire on the Comber Greenway (next to the Stranger Kings murals) was removed late Saturday night (BelTel | Belfast Live).
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“A little boy of fifteen years/was chosen thus to die./As a British soldier aimed his gun/And never questioned why!/The shots rang out, the echo[e]s still/Young Danny fell, shoot to kill./They shoot to kill & kill & kill/Oh please God stop them/But no one will.” Danny Barrett was shot and killed on July 9th, 1981 – a day after Joe McDonnell’s death and on evening of the same day as the shooting of Norah McCabe – by a single shot from a British army observation post on top of Ewart’s Mill. The mural in his memory is in Havana Way, close to his Havana Court home, where he had been sitting on a garden wall talking to a friend. For a full account, see Free Ireland or watch video of his sisters in front of the new mural. For the Lawrence/Hammil board in Brompton Road, see Same Story, Same Bigotry.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08213 X08214 X08215 holy cross boys
Holy Cross [Boys] Primary School [“HCPS”] distributes student into four “houses” within the school for motivational purposes but unlike the four houses of Hogwarts (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin) these are named for famous philosophers. Students in all seven years take one hour of philosophy a week – staff are trained by The Philosophy Foundation (HCPS Prospectus) – and they now have a mural just outside the school gates to encourage them in the four “R”s – “reflective, reasoned, responsive, re-evaluative”. The mural shows a student (Conor) sitting in the pose of Auguste Rodin’s Le Penseur/The Thinker, bringing to mind sayings of the four philosophers: (from left to right) “Quality is not an act, it is a habit” – Aristotle; “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think” – Socrates; “He who knows only his own side knows little” – JS Mill; “Philosophy begins in wonder” – Plato.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08177 X08178 X08176 X08174 [X08173] X08178 X08175 Brookfield St Mickey Doc Marty Lyons “To find yourself, think for yourself.”
The first four units of these 3 bedroom semi-detached houses on the Cavehill Road, collectively called “Kyle Mews“, will be available in mid October, by which time the construction wall with its “No surrender” graffiti from the neighbouring Westlands should be gone.
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X08122
Extramural Activity 