In case you feel bad about indulging yourself at Curated Kitchen (web), head across the street to St Anne’s cathedral in Donegall Street in downtown Belfast.
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Soul Food
Belfast
Free Niall Lehd
Larne man and member of the Continuity IRA or Irish Republican National Congress (IRNC – see Join The IRNC and Maid Of Erin; also IRPC, who now have a Fb page, as does the Free Niall Lehd campaign) member Niall Lehd was initially arrested on explosives charges in 2014 (BBC-NI) and given early release in 2016 (An Phoblacht). He is associated with Ciaran Maxwell, who says that he became a republican bomb-maker out of fear (RTÉ | Express). He was returned to jail in March (Irish News).
Below is a wide shot from 2018-02 showing the advertising hoarding that appears to be disused and (another shot of) the ‘RIP Jamie’ graffiti below.
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Walled Garden
Work continues at the site opposite The Sunflower (Union Street and Kent Street). Nine murals (at least) were lost when the building was torn down but the substantial hoarding is providing artists with a temporary canvas. Above are sunflowers by Conor McClure (web | Fb | tw – see previously More Wolf Than Woman | Spring Wings); below are pieces by TMN crew members – MASH and “Skynet“.
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Tyred Of Your Culture
There’s one month to go before 11th night bonfires (and parades on the 12th) and collection of pallets is well under way in loyalist areas. TLO (web) is back this year protesting the use of tyres on bonfires, with King Billy and horse crushed beneath a pile tyres. Under the ‘bonfire management programme’ communities receive funds only if their pyres do not contain tyres. The Irish News reports that 72 groups have signed up this year, down from 95 in 2015. 40% of Belfast fires are in the scheme (BelTel).
Below is one of last year’s posters – still visible – partly covered with a pride sticker (see Good Year For A Bonfire and below that Lost Duppy).
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Murdered By Cowards
“In loving memory of Taughmonagh residents Brian McMillan, Alan ‘Rocky’ Meehan, Dennis Berrty (Sgt UDA), Thomas Vance (2 Para), Thomas Douglas. Murdered by cowards during the conflict in Northern Ireland. Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day.”
McMillan and Meehan were civilians shot along with TA staff sergeant (and English Catholic) Joseph Flemming on July 9th, 1972.
Dennis Berry was shot by the UVF after leaving the UDA social club in Taughmonagh. According to Lost lives, “Reliable loyalist sources said the shooting was the result of a personal row rather than having any political or organisational basis.” (p. 441)
Thomas Vance died in the IRA’s 1979 ambush of the British Army at Narrow Water Castle, near Warrenpoint (WP), on the same day that Louis Mounbatten was killed. (Republican mural)
Thomas Douglas was shot while walking along the street. His family denied he was a leading loyalist and simply a member of the Orange Order (CAIN | Fb).
This plaque has been added to the UDA memorial garden in Taughmonagh (at the corner of Finbank Gardens & Malfin Drive).
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Madam Valerie
Patisserie Valerie, founded in London in 1926 by Belgian Madam Valerie, opened its second Belfast store in November 2016, in Castle Lane, and had a large-scale version of its can-can dancer emblem painted on the side by Dee Craig (Fb) on the side of the building in Castle Lane, Belfast.
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Nymphomation
Here’s a recent paste-up from print-maker Leo Boyd (web) combining two of his typical themes: retro pulp magazines and what he calls “tech heads” and “tele heads”. For more schlock-horror, see When Urban Love Goes Wrong. For some tele heads, see Are You A Robot? | She Is My Spy. His latest project is Welcome To The Simulation (tumblr).
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The Grey Wolf
Tucked away at the end of Ashfield Crescent in north Belfast is the Dunmore base – there is another in Coleraine – of the North Irish Horse (web | Fb), a light cavalry reconnaissance unit of the British Army. It was originally created in 1902; after recent restructuring, it comes under the command of the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry.
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Who Went To War And Never Returned
It is usually the fourth verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen that is quoted on memorial stones to the fallen of the WWI but here we have the third verse: They went with songs to the battle, they were young/Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow/They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted/They fell with their faces to the foe. The stone commemorates “the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who gave their lives for King and country at the Battle of the Somme 1st July – 18th November 1916”. It is in the garden adjacent to the West Kirk Presbyterian church (Fb) on the Shankill Road. As the image below shows, the garden is also host to many small boards to individual soldier (see previously Among The Fallen | XXXVI | The Sacrifice Remains The Same).
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His Land, His Legs, His Life
The Great March Of Return was a six-week protest by Palestinians in Gaza. Most protestors at the border fence with Israel were non-violent but there are reports of some with rocks, burning tyres, Molotov cocktails on a kite, and an AK-47 (WP). It ended (officially – incidents have continued) on May 15th, Nakba Day, the “day of the catastrophe”, meaning the displacement of Palestinians in the 1948 war. The protest demanded that refugees be allowed to return home – there are 1.1 million living in Gaza. During the protest more than 100 Palestinians died, many by live fire by Israeli forces, and more than 13,000 were injured. According to the mural above, “It’s time the Irish Government show some humanity and act for the Palestinian people. 1. Officially recognise the state of Palestine. 2. Impose economic sanctions on Israel. 3. End all diplomatic ties with the apartheid state. Boycott Israel, an apartheid state.”
The wheelchair protester shown on the right is double amputee Saber Al-Ashkar. He has not, however, been reported dead, as the text below the image (and reports on Twitter and elsewhere) suggests: “They took his land, his legs, and finally his life.” The death might refer to another such protestor Fadi Abu Salah, who was killed in May (Alaraby) (or Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, who was shot in December 2017 – Independent obituary). The UN Commissioner for Human Rights called the killing “incomprehensible” (Guardian); an internal IDF investigation found that Abu Thuraya was not shot by Israeli snipers (Times Of Israel).
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Extramural Activity 