Three memorials to “Hutchy 1985-2017” in Belfast city centre. The first in North Street replacing the recent Young Peacebuilders mural, the second and third in Garfield Street, as part of an ANOC tag (over the other Gonzales piece, FEEL) and over MarcaMix’s CNB15 piece.
Saoradh (Fb) tarp in Ardoyne with scenes of protest, including a placard reading “Sinn Fein, SDLP, Catholic church silence”. The tarp is next to the plaque for IRA volunteer Larry Marley (shown below), whose protracted funeral meant scenes from Ardoyne being broadcast worldwide.
Nothing is as it seems in our current “post-truth” (OED Word of the Year, 2016) political climate. Street art from JMK (left) and KVLR (right) in Belfast city centre.
A variety of posters for marches in Easter week: on the 14th, Saoradh’s call for a counter-protest to the march by former soldiers against prosecutions for deaths during the Troubles (see e.g. Irish News); on the 16th, an Easter Rising commemorative march, somehow associated with the IRA’s D Company; on the 17th (see the final image, below), an Easter Rising commemoration in Derry, organised by Saoradh (and on the 30th – also in the final image below – a commemoration for “Óglach Teddy Campbell”).
We went to get images of Glen Molloy’s (ig) new ‘Two Ronnies’ mural in Gresham Street, but it was already being painted over by members of the TMN krew – CASP, ANCO, MASH, ROTER. The one Ronnie above was snapped before the transformation was complete.
“Faugh a ballagh” (Clear the way) was the motto of the Royal Irish Fusiliers (and then of the Royal Irish Rangers and currently of the Royal Irish Regiment). The Fusiliers served on the western front during WWI – the first and ninth battalions serving in the 36th (Ulster) Division – and the 3rd battalion helped put down the Easter Rising in 1916. Its coat of arm are one of four panels along with the 36th, the Royal Irish Rifles, and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
The Thiepval Memorial, the Cross of Sacrifice, and the Ulster Tower are pictured in the bottom left.
Close-ups of the four regimental insignia are included below. “Nec Aspera Terrant [sic, for “terrent”]”, meaning “frightened by no difficulties”, was the motto of the Inniskilling Fusiliers, who fought in both Boer Wars and both World Wars – its battalions saw action at Gallipoli and on the Western front – before being amalgamated in the Royal Irish Rangers in 1968, along with the Royal Ulster Rifles and the troop featured in the third image, the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Their arms are shown along with those of the Royal Irish Rifles and a board commemorating the charge from Thiepval Wood during the Somme
Another selection of distressed posters, torn to reveal … more posters. The electrical box in the third image was included in last year’s collection: We Had Our Distresses.
Two fish going one way, the third going against the flow, created by VERZ (Tim McCarthy) with young people from the Young At Art Festival. Street art in Belfast city centre.