The Pied Piper Of Ballybeen

Many of the characters in this (unfinished) Ballybeen mural appear to be from The Lord Of The Rings but there is also the piper featured above.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Ballybeen Remembers Its Fallen

“Ballybeen remembers it’s [sic] fallen – to the memory and sacrifice of the brave young men from East Belfast who gave their lives with countless others at the Somme and other battles during the Great War 1914-18.” The Union flag and the Thiepval memorials serve as a backdrop for images of individual soldier and photographs of soldiers and nurses at work.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Ballybeen Dream

Teenagers at Dundonald High “dream, believe, achieve” success on a par with their “Ballybeen sporting hero[e]s”, such as IBO super bantamweight boxer John Lowey and footballers Noel Brotherson (Blackburn Rovers), Glenn “Spike” Ferguson (Glenavon and Linfield), and Chris Walker (Glentoran).

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Neighbourhood Watch

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Next to the bonfire site at the southern (Drumadoon Drive) entrance to Ballybeen, the banner on the building above proclaims the area’s paramilitary allegiance: East Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Flag Of Flags

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Three images of flags. In the one above, flags are seen on either side of the Short Strand “peace” line: the Irish tricolour and the flag of Palestine stand over a Union flag hung next to the local bonfire site.

The second is a “flag of flags” in Tullycarnet – the Union flag, the cross of St. George,  St. Andrew’s Saltire, and the Ulster banner, all together around the red hand of Ulster and the crown, and “No Surrender”.

In the third, the flag of Hamas flies above the red-and-yellow Starry Plough of the Irish Republican Socialist Party in Derry’s Bogside.

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Absent Friends

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Three images from the Tullycarnet Flute Band’s (Tw | Fb) memorial mural for members who have died. The mural is in Lochinver Drive, due south of Stormont, as can be seen in the third image, below. The mural shows two band-members in uniform “In memory of past members and supporters of the Tullycarnet Flute Band. In memory of Steven Dawson (Big Penny). Gone by not forgotten. A light shone in the night. In memory of Joseph Baxter Corry (Joe). Gone but not forgotten. You’ll always be in our hearts. Farewell our absent friend.”

The Pride Of The Hill’s memorial mural was previously featured in a previous Absent Friends

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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King Billy’s On The Fence

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Cut-out boards in the shapes of the red hand of Ulster (both left and right hands!), the five-pointed orange star (usually purple) of the Williamites, the crown of the British monarch, and King Billy on his steed line the fence along Bute Park in Ballybeen.

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Rose & Thistle

The Pride Of Ballybeen is a recently-formed flute band and they now have a band mural. It features the Union Flag and Ulster Banner flanking the red hand of Ulster on a six-pointed star against an orange field, surrounded by a crown and a garland pinned by a rose; the titular banner, below, is supported by shamrock and thistle.

Video of the band in action on youtube.

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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Fighting For The Crown

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Mural in the Tullycarnet estate to the local flute band (“established 2007” Fb), showing various UK flags and the lion and the unicorn from the UK coat of arms. According to the nursery rhyme, “the lion beat the unicorn/all around the town” and so only the lion wears a crown.

Previously: TFB mural in the subway under Kings Road.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Orange & Green

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A three-piece stone in the same Tullycarnet garden as the war memorial and peace mural featured previously. “Orange and green it doesn’t matter, United now, Don’t shatter our dream, Scatter the seeds of peace over our land, So we can travel, Hand in hand across the bridge of hope.” by Sean McLaughlin, a twelve-year-old who was killed in the Omagh bombing of 1998 (WP). The garden was unveiled June 2010 (IFI).

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