Belfast

The Ringmaster

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Andersonstown boxer Anto “The Apache” Cacace (ig) successfully defended his IBO super-featherweight title on May 10th, defeating Leigh Wood of (and in) Nottingham (BBC). Cacace originally won the title in May last year (2024) and was honoured by a mural in South Link.

This commercial hoarding depicts Cacace as the godfather, perhaps a reference to his father’s Italian heritage (DAZN) and/or to Joel Cacace of the Colombo mafia in New York (WP).

Whiterock Road, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15461

Republican Prisoners Still Exist!

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Support republican political prisoners” in “Maghaberry – Portlaoise – Hydebank”. IRPWA (web) board in Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast. For a close-up of the Saoradh call to commemorate the Easter Rising, see the Paddy Duffy collection.

See also: the same message on Divis Street, west Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15459

To The People Of Ireland

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The central space in Ardoyne’s Easter Rising centenary wall, combining stencils of the signatories to the Proclamation around a tarp of the document (see In Commemoration Of 1916) has been empty – except for some electoral signs – since 2019’s board marking the centenary of Sınn Féın (see Still The People Spoke). This new tarp returns to the Proclamation and Easter lily and matches the frame of signatories once more.

The last full mural on the wall fell down in 2014 and there does not appear to have been the energy to paint another full mural since then – but perhaps the fading paint around Clarke and Connolly will provoke a complete re-do.

For the stone in the right-hand corner, see the Peter Moloney collection.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15458

Styling

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This piece of Faigy (Fb) street-art for Bellaire Hair & Beauty (Fb) is hidden off William Street, and is not typically viewable. It was perhaps painted in 2014, around the same time as the smaller piece in William Street – see Bellaire.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15457 X15455 X15456

Greenwashing Against Climate

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Nestlé logo features a bird feeding its young in a nest but in this sticker the tree is dead and the bird has fallen to the ground. The QR code at the centre of the sticker takes one to a Swiss site (orghan.ch) making the case (in German) that “Nestlé exploits & kills for profit. A good product is a free product. Greenwashing against climate.”.

Falls Road, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15454

The Man Who Saved Barcelona

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Don Patricio/Patrick O’Connell mural at the bottom of the Whiterock Road was refreshed for Féıle 2024. The major change is in the middle of the mural, where Lionel Messi – who went to Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 and then to Inter Miami in 2023 – has been replaced by current stars Aitana Bonmatí and Lamine Yamal. (A modern soccer-ball replaces the leather ball of the original mural, patches have been added to O’Connell’s jacket, and the FAI trophy and the large Cup Winner’s medal has been removed to make room for Bonmatí.) The new mural was relaunched on August 2nd, 2024, with an address by the director of the FC Barcelona museum at Camp Nou (Belfast Media).

For more – on O’Connell’s career as a player and manager, the emblems in the stands, and the headlines on the newspaper – see From Celtic Park To Barcelona.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15450 X15449

Wear Your Easter Lily With Pride

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“National Republican Commemoration Committee national Easter commemoration: assemble at Creggan shops – 2pm Monday 21st April 2025 for march to the People’s Monument — Free Derry Corner. Wear your Easter lily with pride.”

Easter Monday falls late this year – April 21st – though still not as late as it did in 1916, when it was on the 24th. The event is typically celebrated at Easter, regardless of its proximity to the 24th, though for the centenary in 2016, anti-Agreement republicans commemorated the Rising on April 24th, specifically, while others paraded at Easter (which was at the end of March).

This Saoradh (web) board calling for attendance at the national march from Creggan to the new (2022) “People’s Monument” in Rossville Street is in Hugo Street, west Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15451

Our Allegiance Is To The Working Class

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These two images are from outside the IRSP offices on the Falls Road at Donegall Road. The idea of painting electrical and other utility boxes (Visual History) started with street art on boxes in the city centre and has now spread into CNR areas. This one (above) appears to have been left incomplete, at least compared to the one around the corner in St James’s Park – see the Paddy Duffy Collection.

Below is a familiar ICA-INLA board, seen previously on Northumberland Street.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15453 X15452

Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The BBC and RTÉ are liars, covid and woke are lies. Only the RSYM (Fb) will tell you how it really is.

Cliftonville Road, north Belfast

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15432

From D-Day To VE Day

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

39 Allied divisions – 12 of them British – participated in the Normandy Landings – officially “Operation Neptune” – that took place on June 6th, 1944; in planning for the operation, the original “D-Day” was June 5th, but bad weather postponed it until the following day, when 160,000 troops stormed the beaches of the Bay Of The Seine. By the end of August, Paris had been liberated, and by the following May, victory in Europe had been achieved. 2024 was the eightieth anniversary of D-Day and 2025 the eightieth anniversary of VE Day, on May 8th.

This D-Day board and VE Day mural are in Edlingham Street, Tiger’s Bay, north Belfast. Also included below is a WWI memorial electrical box opposite, though as can be seen from the board (immediately below) the ‘graveside mourner’ silhouette is becoming a generic symbol of lost UK forces.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2025 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15436 X15437 X15438 X15446