Demolition of the Movie House on Dublin Road has begun (John Campbell/BBC) in order to make way for the Kainos Software headquarters (BelTel). The image above was taken on April 26th, 2020, the day of the cinema’s last showings (BelTel).
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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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Letter boxes in the UK (including Ireland) were green until 1874, when they were changed to red. After independence, the Irish (Free State) boxes were painted green and new boxes were cast without mention of the British monarch (Roaring Water). Royal Mail letter boxes in CNR areas of Northern Ireland have occasionally been painted in green-white-and-orange (Republican Mail | Tricoloured Post Box) as a political statement. The letter box shown above stands on the Ballymoney Road in Armoy.
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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Above, a memorial to Biggie Smalls is added over Glen Molloy’s “Only love can save us ….” ; below, KRS-One sports a ‘Malcolm X College’ hoodie. The two pieces – both painted by Track One (ig) face each other in Kent Street, Belfast.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The first four units of these 3 bedroom semi-detached houses on the Cavehill Road, collectively called “Kyle Mews“, will be available in mid October, by which time the construction wall with its “No surrender” graffiti from the neighbouring Westlands should be gone.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Graffiti in Gardiner Place in the wake of Brexit and the NI Protocol: above, “all taigs [Catholics] are targets” with crosshairs; below, “Brexit needs us to exit the EU”.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Joe McCann was IRA/OIRA OC in the Markets area of Belfast. He was famously photographed among burning buildings in Inglis’s bakery, during protests against the introduction on internment, crouched beneath a Starry Plough and holding an M1. (For more, see Battle Of The Markets, which features the same photograph.) For McCann’s death the following year (on April 15th, 1972) see Joe McCann. This new board replaces a tarp in the same location: see On The Brink Of Sectarian Disaster.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08135 X08134 X08136 Clondara St civil rights for everyone Liam mcmillen republican movement soldier of the people James Nora Connolly
“Handily packed, delicious to eat, Spangles are the fruitiest sweet! Only 3d a packet. Made by Mars.” A 1952 magazine advertisement for Spangles in the window of a vintage shop in Carrickfergus, showing a street party, perhaps in anticipation of the coronation of Elizabeth II, 16 months after she became queen in February 1952. The boiled sweets were a staple of life until 1984 (WP).
Other early ads for Spangles, which were introduced in 1950, note the price is 3d “and only one point”, meaning that customers would have to use one of the 16 points for non-essential goods from their ration books; control of sweets did not end until February, 1953 (WP).
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Celebrations of the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland have been dampened by the fall-out from Brexit and the NI Protocol, the on-going coronavirus restrictions (and the leadership races in both the DUP and UUP). This Rathcoole house a flag to mark the centenary (the coat of arms of NI on a St Patrick’s Saltire) and stickers decrying the Protocol (“Northern Ireland unionists against NI Protocol”) and thanking the NHS.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Debenhams went into administration on April 9th, 2020 and immediately announced the closure of their stores in the Republic, with the loss of 1,200+ jobs. Workers went on strike for their union-negotiated redundancy, picketing both the front and rear entrances of stores to prevent the removal of stock by liquidators. The strike ended after 406 days when workers voted to accept an (Irish) government re-training scheme of 3m euro (Irish Times); the company was liquidated and all stores closed, including those in the north. The poster shown is on the ILAC centre in central Dublin.
A book on the strike – Tales From The Debenhams Picket Line – is now available.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Land for people not for profit.” About 900 people have been living in the former Woodstock Hospital – renamed Cissie Gool House – in Cape Town, South Africa, since 2017, in an on-going dispute with the city over housing and redevelopment of the site. In the most recent twist in the long-running tale, the occupants, campaigning under the name “Reclaim The City”, won a court battle to ensure that a survey of the residents must be undertaken by their own attorneys; the survey is ostensibly for the purposes to determine their eligibility for re-housing but the activists say it is a first step to eviction. (See IOL one | two | three | four.) “CMYC [Clonard Monastery Youth Centre web | Fb] supports the city Cape Town and Cissie Gool house”.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Extramural Activity 