The Young Citizen Volunteers began as a civic organisation and domestic reserve force in 1912 but by the time of the first World War had become a battalion of the Ulster Volunteers and went to the Western Front as the fourteenth battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, part of the 36th (Ulster) Division, landing at Boulogne in October, 1915. The force was mainly Protestant but History Hub Ulster has a page on the 42 Ulster Catholics who served in the 14th (YCV) RIR.
As mentioned in an entry about Dalaradia, the HUBB community centre (web | Fb) in north Belfast has, since 2010, been based in what used to be a World War II Civil Defence air-raid shelter, which it cleaned and renovated (Tele). The original hall is depicted in this mural on the side of the HUBB. Belfast was bombed by the Germans four times in April and May of 1941.
In 1940, Belfast was protected by thirty-eight anti-aircraft guns. The German Luftwaffe flew a reconnaissance flight over Belfast on November 30th, 1940 and a test mission of eight planes on April 7th, 1941 concluded that Belfast’s defences were, “inferior in quality, scanty and insufficient” (Elaine Hogg/Glenravel History). 150 bombers would blitz Belfast the following week, on Easter Tuesday, April 15th, and the seven guns that had been in operation ceased firing, believing, falsely, that RAF planes were also in the sky (WP).
In the blitz of Easter Tuesday, 1941, more than 900 people died, 1,500 were injured, and half the houses in Belfast were damaged (WP). According to Elaine Hogg’s research in the ‘Darker Side Of Belfast’ series, 100,000 people left the city in the remainder of the month, due to shock, fear, and the squalid conditions and unruly behaviour that followed the bombing.
The river in question is the Farset, which in the late 1700s was still open in what was then the Back-Of-The-River area and is now Bank Square. It was all covered over by 1804.
The 2015 installation of ‘life in the old days’ panels is by Annemarie Mullan, Stephen Mackey, and King Street Arts, presenting street scenes inspired by “information from the 1898 census” (CultureNI | Love Belfast).
“Don’t huff, don’t puff – stay away from that stuff.” The three little piggies give the big bad wolf some grief for his “dope” habit. The message is directed at the kids in the Fortwilliam Youth Centre in Mount Vernon. “You only live once.”
Sandy Row is “steeped in 400 years of tradition”, according to Historic Sandy Row (and sister site Sandy Row Community Forum which has developed a “growth strategy” for the area). Some of that history is presented at the junction with Hope Street, one each for Buildings & Housing, People, Industry, Culture, and History.
British Army soldiers from four streets are commemorated in a plaque in Barrington Gardens. All four streets – Abingdon, Barrington, Colchester, and Dorchester – have changed their names or disappeared entirely (Dorchester) since 1914. “Erected by 1st Belfast Rangers Friends Of The Somme Society” – the supporters club is right next door.
Here is a selection of posters from throughout the past year (2017) from Belfast and London-/Derry. Above is an Anarchists In Ireland poster welcoming refugees, while the second image is of a passenger and parcel service to Romania from Dublin. The others are for republican marches and causes.
Ross Wilson’s statue ‘Mother – Daughter – Sister’ was launched in 2015 (Art Council NI), two years after his King William mural which towers over it (see final image). “This sculpture celebrates the female cultural identity of Sandy Row and the generational contribution women have made to this community both in the family and workplace.” With a verse from the Doris Day song ‘Que Sera Sera’ from Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much.
The HUBB community centre is host to a number of social groups, including those represented in the mosaic above: the Old Comrades group, the Seaview chapter of the Royal British Legion, North Shore and Ladies Somme memorial groups, a spotlight (perhaps in connection with the Civil Defence bowling club? – the HUBB is in what used to be a civil defence building), and the Kingdom of Dalaradia society. According to the eponymous web site, Dalaradia was “was a kingdom of the Cruthin in the north-east of Ireland and parts of Scotland in the first millennium.” Hence, perhaps, the red hand of Ulster together with the Scottish thistle.
The power of art can take you from central Belfast to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Work by Patrick T Devlin at the ArtCetera Studio (fb) in Rosemary Street, Belfast.
Extramural Activity 