These two wide shots are from the junction of Northumberland and Beverly streets, where the new Kitchener board joins poppies for soldiers of the the 36th (Ulster) Division on the 100th anniversary of the Somme and the (repaired) John Henry Patterson – godfather of the Israeli army – board.
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“Are you one of Kitchener’s own?” asks a new mural in Northumberland Street: “We here pay grateful and everlasting tribute, to all foreign nationals across the empire, who courageously and passionately fought side by side with their British counterparts, for King and country, during the First World War.” The left-hand side (second image) features images of soldiers from the West Indies and India, including “The Flying Sikh”, Hardit Singh Malik and a French lady as she “pins flowers on a regiment containing Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus.” On the right, images of the “presentation of Colours to the 51st Battalion Canadian expeditionary force” and of Canadian “bluebird” nurses in the Canadian Army Medical Corps.
Replaces (part of) Welcome To The Shankill. See Belfast Live for an image from the launch.
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X04199 X04201 X04202 India Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and the Union of South Africa. one million dead in the great war rest in France “A la gloire de dieu et a la memoire du million de morts de l’empire britannique tombes dans la grande guerre 191401918 et qui pour la plupart reposent en France.” Greater Shankill ACT
Here’s the left-hand side of the UDA mural in Disraeli Street being launched today (June 3rd, 2017). As can be seen most clearly in the final, sideways-on, image, both pieces are a combination of printed poster and attached boards. Lines from Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen of WWI are used: “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old/Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun/And in the morning we shall remember them.”
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Here is the main part of a new printed mural in the Woodvale area of west Belfast (to be officially launched on Saturday, June 3rd). It celebrates the creation of the Woodvale Defence Association as “Defenders of our community since 1969” which in 1971 merged with other associations to form the UDA, whose youth wing is the UYM (lower middle, “terrae filius” = “sons of the soil”) and which uses “UFF” (upper left, “feriens ego” = “attack to defend”) as a cover for military operation. The final emblem is of the LPA (Loyalist Prisoners’ Association, “quis separabit” = “none shall separate us”). The mural replaced by this one is in the bottom left, while the bottom right contains an image of Long Kesh in 1979. The main photograph is of a 1972 march on the Shankill.
For the side-wall, see Remembering Our Fallen.
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St James-area gang IBA (I’d Buck Anything) imitating the old (1990’s) Mr Muscle ads. It’s not clear what the “jobs” that need doing are … perhaps housebreaking?
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The UK general election takes place Thursday week (June 8th). Here are two Sınn Féın boards, both at the junction of the Falls and Glen Roads (site of the former Andersonstown police station), the first featuring the image of Michelle O’Neill and exhorting people to “register to vote now!” (Claragh chun vótáıl anoıs) and the second a quote from Gerry Adams’s oration at the graveside of Martin McGuinness: “If you want freedom, go out and take it. Organise. Mobilise. Unite for rights” (Más saoırse atá uaıt, gabh amach agus beır greım uırthı. Eagraıgh, gríosaıgh, troıd ar son do chearta.) A copy of Latuff’s Ireland-Palestine hunger-striker solidarity cartoon (which he also painted as a mural in Northumberland St) has been added to Michelle’s lapel.
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Fifteen football teams from west and north Belfast are involved in a new Suicide Awareness and Mental Health Initiative (SAMHI) in order to combat a recent increase in suicides, including two players from Belfast Celtic (BBC).
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Another “Lá Dearg” – organised by An Dream Dearg (Fb) (the red group) takes place next Saturday with a march from An Chultúrlann to the city hall. The image above shows graffiti in Divis Street; the image below shows posters for the event on the Lıú Lúnasa mural.
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“CRF” graffiti on the Northumberland Street security gates outside New Life City church. The Catholic Reaction Force — a “reaction” to the Protestant “Action” Force — declared a ceasefire in 1994.
Previous CRF sightings: Speaking In Code in Beechmount | Badly Drawn, Boy in Glengormley.
Previous images from the New Life courtyard.
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Seán Ó Rıordan was aged 13 when “killed in action by British crown forces” on Cawnpore Street on 23rd March 1972 (Sutton) and he is buried in Milltown cemetery. The 1977 Protocol I of the Geneva Convention would later prohibit conscription of children younger than 15 but allow for their voluntary participation. It is thus notable that this new board to “Fıann [sic] Seán Ó Rıordan” was “erected by the family”.
Ascaıll Ard Na bhFeá/Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast.
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Extramural Activity 