The cult of the Great Pumpkin seems to be spreading from the US but it’s not clear that in fact the Great Pumpkin loves unconditionally: in the Peanuts universe, Linus believes that on Halloween night the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch and delivers toys to good and believing children (Peanuts wiki). Paste-up in Belfast city centre.
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The arrow of the Dance Addiction (Fb) mural points to a cat in the grass (above) and/or to Parkgate Avenue Gospel Hall (below).
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“South Belfast – time for truth – exposing collusion – Ormeau Road – ‘Bullets do not only travel distance but also through time'” [Based on a quote by James Kennedy’s father: “The bullets that killed James didn’t just travel in distance, they travelled in time. Some of those bullets never stop travelling.” (Irish Times)]
Police Ombudsman Marie Andersons’s report into various murders and attempted murders in south Belfast was released yesterday (February 7th, 2022) and presented a list of “collusive behaviours” between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries. Among the incidents investigated was the killing of five people “murdered for their faith” at the Sean Graham bookies’ office on the Ormeau Road in February 5th, 1992; the report found that one of the two UDA gunmen was a Special Branch informant and that a Browning pistol used in the attack had been supplied by the RUC (as had previously been revealed in the 2010 HET Inquiry report) and that records relating to the weapon had been withheld from investigators (Irish Times | Belfast Live). For the 30th anniversary, relatives of the five men killed and of five more who were injured displayed their portraits next to the small memorial garden, which itself was updated to mark the third decade since their deaths: “1992-2022” (Belfast Live).
The plaque on the far left is to Charles Jospeh McGrillen, shot by the UDA/UFF in 1988 at his work in Dunne’s on the Annadale embankment (Sutton). Next to the bookies’ parlour is a plaque to Fian Jim Templeton.
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X09015 X09014 X09013 X09012 hatfield st go ndéana Dıa trócaıre ar a n-anamacha
So sayeth the entablature above the entrance to Ballyhackamore Gospel Hall on the Upper Newtownards Road (which dates back to 1919). The Lord may be sought there during services on Sundays and Bible study on Tuesdays; the Tesco express next door is open seventeen hours a day, seven days a week. “The wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life – Romans 6:23”
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Don’t let me body lie here – get me back to the green hill by Murlough, by the McCarry’s house, looking down on the Moyle. That’s where I’d like to be now, that’s where I’d like to lie. … Death is not dark but only deeper blue.” [Letter to Elizabeth “Eilis” Bannister, July 25th, 1916] Roger Casement was executed in Pentonville prison, in England, in 1916, for his role in gunrunning for the Rising, and his corpse was buried in the prison cemetery. Despite repeated requests for repatriation, it wasn’t until 1965 that the corpse was returned to Ireland – but to his home town of Dublin rather than to his beloved Murlough, where his cousins Eilis and Gertrude lived (in what was by then Northern Ireland): the corpse was released on condition that it not enter Northern Ireland, for fear of stoking political tensions between the sects (WP).
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X09004 X09011 erected by casement commemoration committee Andersonstown Rd
Another mural on Upper Newtownards Road on the lamplighter theme: Ballyhack-Amore by Alana McDowell (ig | web). The name “Ballyhackamore” comes not from Italian but from Irish: Baile an Chacamair, town of the mud flat (PlaceNamesNI).
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Art by R|B Blackcat (Fb | ig) in the door of the Swanston building in College Street, Belfast. For background on the building, see the previous art in this doorway, The Gateway Is Love.
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Street art by Leighoops (ig) at the entrance to Artcetera off Rosemary Street.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Episode 38 of the BBC’s “Year ’21” podcast considered the life (and diary) of a lamplighter in east Belfast who witnessed the violence that gripped the city in 1920-1922. The tribute on Newtowanards Road is by emic (web) with support from Daisy Chain (tw) and EastSide Partnership (tw).
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“It’s okay not to be okay” – These are the shutters of Beep’s ice-cream and sweet shop (Fb) on the Woodstock Road, painted last October in support of mental health in the community.
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Extramural Activity 