Abortion Rights Now

#TrustWomen with a raised fist in a ‘Venus’ symbol.

North Howard Street, west Belfast.

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The Bogside Butcher

“Martin McGuinnes [sic], the Bogside buther [sic] and victim maker 1950-2017” – commentary on IRA volunteer and Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness’s recent (March 2017) death from amyloidosis, in Belvoir Street.

Previously: Your A Scumbag, Martin McGuinness

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Civilisation Has Its Roots In The Soil

“Civilisation has its roots in the soil & without soil there will be no future life – Tá an duıne fréamhaıthe san ıthır, gan í ní hann dó” by Ed Reynolds (webtw) and Tancredi Caruso. Together they put on an exhibition and painted a mural for the Belowground Visions Of Life project (Soil Security Programme). The mural is outside Bunscoıl Mhıc Reachtaın (hence the Irish translation) in the old ‘Little Italy’ area of Belfast. Sand or soil has been added to the mural to give it texture.

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Fulton & Goatley

UDA members John Fulton and were Stephen Goatley were killed together in the Alexandra Bar on York Road (close to the Mervue Street location of this memorial) by the UVF as part of a UDA-UVF feud in 1975. The poppy is more often associated with the Ulster Volunteers (of WWI) and the UVF.

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St Mary’s Chapel Lane

St Mary’s Chapel Lane is Belfast’s first post-penal law Catholic church, originally constructed in 1784 with funds from local Presbyterian and Anglican congregations (WP). The current building dates to 1868. It was made a “B1” listed building in 1979. The “doorcase” is described as follows in its entry: “Painted sandstone doorcase comprises a pair of round-headed door openings with vertically-sheeted timber doors and bowtel arches rising from squat green marble columns with elaborate stiff-leaf capitals surmounted by an oval niche housing a statue of St. Mary and flanking seraphims to the spandrels. The entire entrance is framed by a further bowtel arch with chevron moulding and outer hood moulding also rising from a pair of green marble columns.”

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Maid Of Erin

The harp as a symbol of Ireland dates back to the 1500’s, with the ‘winged maiden’ version current by the late 1700s. The United Irishmen replaced the crown typically added above it (used, for example, by the Royal Irish Rifles) with a cap of freedom (for another image see the 2000 Bobby Sands mural). The Irish Republican National Congress (web) is a 2014 group with the goal of a united Ireland.

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Identity Movement Ireland

Based on the ‘lambda’ symbol on the right (ancient Greek “L” standing for “Lakedaimon”), ‘Identity Movement Ireland’ appears to be ‘Generation Identity Ireland’ (Fb), which appears to be (associated with) Identity Ireland (web | Fb), a relatively new (July 2015) nationalist party in favor of EU withdrawal and increased (Muslim) immigration control. It has joined with similar organisations in fifteen other European countries who subscribe to PEGIDA – Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West). The stencil above has appeared on the Cavehill Road, Belfast.

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I Spy

You can see (or imagine) all of east Belfast with the help of the guide-post in the middle of Lisvannon Community Garden: Stormont to the east, factories to the south-west, and Harland & Wolff to the north-west.

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Ulsters Brave

Here is another set of four portraits of Robert Bennett, Joe Long, James Cordner, and Robert “Squeak” Seymour, all members of the UVF killed in the 1970s (Bennet, Long, Cordner) and 1980s (Seymour).

Inverary Street, east Belfast.

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Bank Street

The old Bank Street (looking towards St Mary’s, Chapel Lane) is recreated in a new mural outside Manny’s fish and chips, though with some liberties taken. (Here is the street in 1915 and in 1924.) Kelly’s Cellars, for example, is where Bittles Bar is shown; Bittles Bar was the flatiron building on Victoria Street, recently sold.

Landmarks such as City Hall, the Titanic Centre, the H&W cranes, and An Chultúrlann are included. On the right side of the mural (see the wide shot, below) three murals are included: the one outside Madden’s Bar, the one on the West Belfast Taxi terminal and the Madonna And Child mural at the bottom of Divis that hasn’t existed since about 2000.

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