As Peggy Lee said in the song, “If that’s all there is my friends/Then let’s keep dancing,
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball/If that’s all there is”. These carefree dancers in Belfast’s city centre are by FGB (Francois Got Buffed – web | twitter).
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The image above shows three members of the Royal Irish Constabulary outside Belfast’s Celtic Park in 1912. The event is perhaps a visit by Lord Pirrie, Winston Churchill, and John Redmond to speak in favour of the Home Rule bill at a meeting of the Ulster Liberal Association on February 8th. (You can see at ticket for the event at Decade Of Centenaries.) The meeting was originally to be held in the Ulster Hall, but this was blockaded by Unionist protesters (Irish History). According to one site, Churchill was “nearly lynched” by angry Protestants outside the grounds.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The ‘Revolution 1916’ exhibition – items from which were shown in Belfast earlier in February (see Revolution 1916) – opened in Dublin this weekend, including two murals (see this An Phoblacht article for one of them). The three painters also painted the mural above for the mini-exhibition in Andersonstown, reproducing the left-hand grouping from Walter Paget’s Birth Of The Irish Republic and putting the proclamation in the background. For Paget’s original oil painting and other version of it, see the painting’s Visual History page.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Included in the black taxi tours of the murals of west Belfast is a stop along the Cupar Way “peace” line and an invitation to take a black marker and leave one’s mark. A designated name-tag with “Hello my name is …” was even painted for the purpose – see the image below. Many sign their names while others leave an inspiring slogan. In the image above alone you can read “Build legacies, not walls”; “It is easier to take a life than protect a life – decide you for peace!”; “A wish for peace, a hope for understanding, a belief in love”; “Don’t let the darkness consume you”; “Love lives longer than hate”; and so on. Bromides such as these have elicited the commentary in white from a local graffitist.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03202 X03203 fuck you NOTA none of the above TMN
Actor Leonard Nimoy died on February 27th, 2015. He is best known for the role of Star Trek‘s Spock, a part he played for 49 years. The mural above brings the character from space to the streets, with gold chain and skull hat. “Trek yourself before ya wreck yourself.”
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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James “Jim” Doherty was six years old when he was shot while playing in the front garden of his Turf Lodge home in 1972. Relatives For Justice and the family launched the board shown above at the entrance to the estate last October in order to push for a new inquiry into the death due to the insufficiency of the original investigation and the disappearance of the bullet taken from the body. (Belfast Media Group)
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Some residents of Ballymuprhy Drive have erected their own Irish-language street sign. The council has not erected one because a substantial number of residents did not respond to a survey. The primary resident behind the move, Eileen Reid, contends that the 2/3rds is unreasonable. (Irish Times | Belfast Live | Irish News)
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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As a companion for Emic’s Laganside seahorses, here’s Friz’s (Web | Fb | Tw) bright red octopus, painted for last September’s Culture Night celebrations.
Also by Friz for CNB15: Galaxy Paws.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Religion and military might are one in this giant (see the wide shot, below) cross in Belfast’s City Cemetery, which commemorates the dead of World War I. The base (shown below) reads: The cross of sacrifice is one in design and intention with those which have been set up in France and Belgium and other places throughout the world where our dead of this great war are laid to rest. Their name liveth for ever more.” There is a similar memorial in Dundonald Cemetery. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, “There are now 296 Commonwealth burials of the 1914-1918 war and 274 of the 1939-1945 war commemorated here.”
Previously from the City Cemetery: The Depths Of Sectarianism
Previously on the same theme: And A Sword In The Other
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“New Lodge Hoods” a long way from home – in Skegoneill. With “NBH” [North Belfast Hoods], “KAH” [Kill All Huns].
Ashfield Gardens, Belfast.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Extramural Activity 