Belfast south – Page 22 – Extramural Activity

Winter In The Tropics

2015-01-102024-12-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The tropical ravine in the Botanic Gardens is closed for renovation over the winter. The large plants which could not be moved had to be wrapped up as protection against the cold. (Belfast City Council) The ravine – including the elevated interior walkway shown above – was the brain-child of Charles McKimm (Ulster History Circle) whose blue plaque is shown in the second image. The images in this post were taken on the day before closing.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02386 X02387 X02388 1848 – 1907 first general superintendent of belfast parks 1903

The Most That Man Can Give

2015-01-072024-12-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Computer-generated board in Lindsay Street showing a map of the northern end of the Western Front and images of soldiers marching, on horseback, and in the trenches: Donegall Pass remembers 1914-1918 the great sacrifice. Lest we forget. Here are commemorated the many local men who during the Great War of 1914-1918 gave the most that man can give: life itself for God for King and Country.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02090 36th ulster division those who fell basset dewar dunlop gourley hall halliday hamilton hayes hazlett jess jones kitson kydd mcallister mccollam mckissack mcwilliams motherwell nixon patterson scott wright yates the day break and the shadows flow away st mary magdalene parish

Scotland’s Burden

2014-12-232024-12-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The mural above pairs the emblem of Celtic – a Scottish team – with a former emblem of the FAI – the governing body for the Republic’s national team (and, at the time this mural was painted (2002 according to CAIN), league football in the South). Celtic shoulders the footballing dreams of many Northern Ireland nationalists, which is perhaps why, below the flags of Scotland and Ireland, what should be “Albain agus Éıre” is in fact “Albaın agus eıre”: Scotland and a burden.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02084 club 1888 friendly street saltire association ireland

After The Elms Closes

2014-12-132024-12-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Elms/The Globe/The Elms/The Club is making way for a Tesco Express (Tele). Above is the bloodshot eyeball street art (by KVLR? – please confirm) that adorned the tradesman’s entrance of the bar in its most recent incarnation.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02081 red bull

A True Red

2014-11-242024-12-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here is a mural in the Markets area of south Belfast celebrating the achievements of local boy George McMullen, who played youth football for St. Malachy’s and St. Matthew’s before joining Cliftonville in 2011 age 20.

On the left is the familiar Cliftonville huddle (see previously: The Red Army). The two poses in the centre and on the left are reproductions of Belfast Telegraph images. The first is from Cliftonville’s 2013 Dankse Bank Irish League-clinching win over Linfield, which the Reds won with a McMullen penalty in the dying seconds; the second in from the same moment in the 2014 campaign: Chris Curran has just scored to put the Reds two-nil up in a game against Portadown that would win them the League for the second year in succession.

Other Cliftonville players have been featured in murals: Joe The Goal in Ardyone and Rory Donnelly in the Bone.

Below is a shot of the piece in development and below that is a wide shot showing the mural’s location adjacent to the End The Siege On Gaza mural.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02102 X02056 X02060 mallachy’s mcnally o’kane murray boyce gormley stats to date 2014 485 first team appearances 96 goals scored the penalty against linfield to win the irish league

Ulster Will Fight

2014-10-162024-12-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“It is needful that we knit together as one man, each strengthening the other, and not holding back of counting the cost” – Ulster [Unionist] Council Resolution 1912. The Council met on September 23rd and 471,000 people signed the covenant (figures here) on or around the 28th – Ulster Day – led by Sir Edward Carson.

For another board featuring similar images, see Covenant Of Hearts. In the same row of boards: Anthem For Doomed Youth

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02089 will be right we won’t have home rule just under half a million men women september 28, in protest at the home rule bill introduced by the british government in that same year sir edward carson was the first person to sign at belfast city hall londonderry protestant churches craigavon signers were all unionists against the establishment of an irish parliament in dublin own blood to show their faith and dedication to the covenant

100 Years Apart

2014-09-242024-12-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Visible from the Ormeau Road, this large union flag greets visitors to Donegall Pass in the south of the city. It asserts the presence of the UVF and connects the original Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913 to the present-day group one hundred years later: the aim of the original UVF was to resist the impending rule by Catholics under Home Rule.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02062 2013

Work Organises Life

2014-09-212024-12-22Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are two panels from the Donegall Road bridge at Roden Street both concerned with working life in the area in years gone by. The (uncredited) words at the bottom of the first board come from a Bill Clinton speech. At greater length, it goes “I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work. Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline to life. It gives meaning and self-esteem to people who are parents. It gives a role model to children …”

The second features two stanzas from a poem called here “The Weaver’s Prayer” but also known as “The Master Weaver”, “The Weaver”, and “Just A Weaver”, and commonly though not unanimously attributed to one Benjamin Malacia Franklin in the 1940s; it is here said to have been penned by a “female Ulster weaver in 1922”: “Not ’til the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly, shall God unroll the canvas, and explain the reasons why. The dark threads are as neatful, in the weaver’s skilful hand, as the thread of the gold and silver, in the pattern he has planned.”

See previously: The Thread Of History which features two reflections on life as a female weaver.

Defenders Of The Pass

2014-09-132025-12-12Extramural Activity6 Comments

Here are close-ups of the two boards to either side of the new Young Conquerors piece (featured recently in Veni, Vidi, Vici). The first shows a photograph of the original Donegall Pass Defenders Flute Band, which lasted a short time in the 1970s before the formation of the Conquerors in 1977 (Fb). The second shows the patch of the band.

Update (2015-01): Nikki has kindly sent us an image of the band parading, taken sometime in the 1970s. Her grandfather, Thomas Lorimer, recently passed away and she found the picture in his roof space. He was a member of the Defenders and is at the far left of the picture, on the bass drum. She was also able to identify him in the posed picture from the board – shown in detail below; he is the tall gent in the back.