Belfast north

Feriens Tego

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Stop The Boats has been painted out below the large “Loyalist Tiger’s Bay” and the entire wall painted in solid blue and book-ended by UDA and UFF boards showing silhouetted gunmen in active poses.

The side-wall, home to painted Orange Order symbols since 2017, has been painted black and a board (above) added to E company from Tiger’s Bay. (It’s possible “North Belfast brigade” and “3rd battalion” are the same thing.)

For the KCIII board above, see I Here Present Unto You Your Undoubted King.

Limestone Road and North Queen Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast

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With God As Our Protector

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The Confederate battle flag flies alongside the Union Flag and Ulster Banner at the corner of Northwood Crescent and Skegoneill Avenue, north Belfast.

Here are two previous sightings of the flag – 2016 east Belfast | 2014 east Belfast – and both the flag and the war were celebrated in one of the Pioneers To Presidents murals, in north Belfast.

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Comóradh Blıantúıl Ar An Staılc Ocraıs

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Michael Devine was the last of the 1981 hunger-strikers to die, on August 20th, 1981, and although the strike was not called off until October 3rd, his death now marks the end of the strike for commemorative purposes. The 44th annual national commemoration of the strike will take place this year on the 24th, “assembling at Dunville Park” in west Belfast.

Antrim Rd/New Lodge Rd, north Belfast. For the street art on the electrical box, see Rotten And Corrupt.

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Recovery

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The UVF mural overlooking the entrance to Mount Vernon has been repainted after Storm Darragh back in December (2024) knocked down part of the wall it was painted on (see Taken By Storm) and the remainder of the wall was subsequently knocked down (see Prepared For Space, Ready For Wall).

There were local voices against the repainting of the mural (Sunday World) but after the wall (which is owned by the Housing Executive) was rebuilt, scaffolding went up at the end of March (BelTel) and painting began in June.

The mural will be officially launched at the Twelfth celebrations. The repainting has been criticised by the father of one UVF victim (BelTel). One (very) small mercy is that neither of the gunmen – from the North Belfast UVF – is directly confronting the viewer (including the drivers coming off the M2 at Fortwilliam.

Images of the completed mural are from June 26th; the in-progress images are as dated below.

March 29th:

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Bik McFarlane

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Brendan “Bik” McFarlane was imprisoned for life for the attack on the Bayardo Bar on the Shankill Road and took over as IRA OC in the Maze when Bobby Sands went on hunger-strike in 1981. He escaped the prison in 1983 and was extradited back to Northern Ireland from the Netherlands in 1986 and eventually paroled in 1997.

McFarlane died in February (2025) (BelTel). He was raised in Ardoyne, north Belfast, and this graffiti is on a hoarding on Ardoyne Avenue.

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The Magic Within

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“The Shamrock supports Kneecap”. Kneecap member Mo Chara (Lıam Óg Ó hAnnaıdh) appeared in court (in London) last week to face charges of displaying a flag of a proscribed organisation (Hezbollah). He was released on bail and will return on August 20th. (BBC | AP) In the meantime, the group appeared in front of 10,000 fans on the West Holts stage at Glastonbury on Saturday (June 28th) despite criticism from UK prime minister Keir Starmer (BBC).

For the band’s other woes, see Seas Le Kneecap.

The Shamrock Sport & Social Club (Fb) in Ardoyne is running a promotion by which people who post their selfies in front of the new mural in supoprt of Kneecap on social media can claim a bottle of Le Grá lager (web).

The fist is familiar from the pro-Palestine mural in Beechmount and the burning PSNI land-rover is familiar from the first (of three) Kneecap murals in Hawthorn Street – see Incendiary Device.

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Republican Prisoners Still Exist!

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“Support republican political prisoners” in “Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank”. IRPWA (web) board in Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast. For a close-up of the Saoradh call to commemorate the Easter Rising, see the Paddy Duffy collection.

See also: the same message on Divis Street, west Belfast.

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To The People Of Ireland

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The central space in Ardoyne’s Easter Rising centenary wall, combining stencils of the signatories to the Proclamation around a tarp of the document (see In Commemoration Of 1916) has been empty – except for some electoral signs – since 2019’s board marking the centenary of Sınn Féın (see Still The People Spoke). This new tarp returns to the Proclamation and Easter lily and matches the frame of signatories once more.

The last full mural on the wall fell down in 2014 and there does not appear to have been the energy to paint another full mural since then – but perhaps the fading paint around Clarke and Connolly will provoke a complete re-do.

For the stone in the right-hand corner, see the Peter Moloney collection.

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From D-Day To VE Day

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39 Allied divisions – 12 of them British – participated in the Normandy Landings – officially “Operation Neptune” – that took place on June 6th, 1944; in planning for the operation, the original “D-Day” was June 5th, but bad weather postponed it until the following day, when 160,000 troops stormed the beaches of the Bay Of The Seine. By the end of August, Paris had been liberated, and by the following May, victory in Europe had been achieved. 2024 was the eightieth anniversary of D-Day and 2025 the eightieth anniversary of VE Day, on May 8th.

This D-Day board and VE Day mural are in Edlingham Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast. Also included below is a WWI memorial electrical box opposite, though as can be seen from the board (immediately below) the ‘graveside mourner’ silhouette is becoming a generic symbol of lost UK forces.

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I Was A Stranger And You Welcomed Me

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God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John 3:16). And, greater love hath no man but to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13, often used in the context of military sacrifice). But local homes are for local people. (The use of a stencil is a step up in sophistication.)

The Union Flag fills the empty frame where there used to be a list of locals who died in The Belfast Blitz.

Hogarth Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast

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