Belfast

Charter NI Scum Out

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Charter NI chief executive Dee Stitt returned to work on Wednesday after a three-week holiday following controversial remarks that a Bangor flute band (the North Down Defenders) provided “homeland security” for the area and that he was the big man in the area. (The remarks were included in this Guardian video, starting at 7m 22s. For more on the UDA in north Down, see this Tele article.) Many have called for his resignation, including Jeffrey Donaldson of the DUP (Irish News), though the Charter NI board, who conducted an internal review, did not fire him. At least one of the local people in east Belfast was already unhappy with the organization this summer, when the graffiti above was sprayed in Beechfield Street.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03598 NI Executive “managed” September and not “controlled” November

St. Comgall’s

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St. Comgall’s Primary school on Divis Street opened in 1932 and closed in 1988. Here are two of the boards which currently decorate its boarded-up front windows. Above, St. Malachy’s Scout Pipe Band parades its way through the school yard. (If you know anything about the pipe band or the competition it is going to, please leave a comment.) Below, a céılí mór from 1969 is taking place. The school’s location at the bottom of Percy Street put it at the centre of events in 1969 as west Belfast tore itself apart.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Water Is A Right!

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A proposed pipeline between North Dakota and southern Illinois would go under the Missouri river on the Standing Rock Reservation of the Sioux tribe, who have filed suit against the (US) Corps Of Engineers. Protests against the pipeline hit the mainstream news on September 3rd when security personnel used dogs to drive off protesters. The éirígí sheet shown above is hanging on the fencing below Divis tower.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03934 july 1873 sioux nation liberty equality community save our natural resources ireland

The Duke Of Windsor

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Tommy Dickson ended his career (in 1965) with a partial season at Glentoran. Before that, however, he spent 16 seasons in the first team at Linfield, scoring 451 goals and leading the club to titles in the League Cup, Irish Cup, Gold Cup, Ulster Cup, City Cup, North-South Cup, and County Antrim Shield (shown at the top of the mural). (WP)

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The Whisper And The Wish

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A whsipered prayer is heard through the Bank Street mist. Street art by JMK (Jonny McKerr) for CBN16/HTN.

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Keep Her Lit

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Dublin’s ADW (web) did a good job of painting the electrical box in the colour scheme of his CNB16 mural, but had to leave the parking meter be. The mural shows a heart with pressure gauge and heart-shaped porthole.

See also: last year’s Born To Create.

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Their Name Liveth Forevermore

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In May we reported that the RHC mural in Hunt Street had been replaced by a Ballymacarrett Somme Society mural, though the side wall remained a memorial to C Coy RHC. Now the side wall has also been turned into a Somme memorial, with John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields and an image of the Cross of Sacrifice in front of the Thiepval memorial. The larger of the two plaques has been moved to the nearby RHC memorial garden.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Vote For Nobody!

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US Americans go to the polls today to choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for President (as well as many House and Senate elections). The poster above (in a shop window in Royal Avenue) offers some radical advice: “Nobody will keep election promises. Nobody will represent you. Nobody will help you. Nobody cares! If Nobody is elected things will be better for everyone!”

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Taughmonagh Remembers

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The bus turnaround at the entrance to Taughmonagh estate has been turned into a Somme Garden (see the third image, below). The “Welcome to Taughmonagh” sign at entrance has been covered over with a Union flag board with “Taughmonagh remembers” and the three figures in the sculpture in the middle have each been given a union jack cap.

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X03922 X03920 X03921 Taughmonagh heritage and culture society the bulbs for this somme garden were bought with donations by from the estate planted by the children to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle of the somme and in the morning we will remember them