City/Town

Saidie Patterson

Extramural Activity1 Comment

A “blue plaque” has been erected on the front of the Shankill Methodist church (on the Shankill at Berlin Street) to Saidie Patterson “trade unionist and peace activist”. In 1940 she led a seven-week strike to improve conditions and pay in Ewart’s linen mill on the Crumlin Road, where she had been working since age 14. As noted on the plaque, she was the first winner of the World Methodist Peace Prize (in 1977) – Allan McCullough has a photo of Patterson with her medal (the one in the middle). The plaque was unveiled on International Women’s Day 2018. (Irish News | Bel Tel | BBC-NI)

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04937

Battle Of The Markets

Extramural Activity1 Comment

Internment (imprisonment without trial) was introduced on August 9th, 1971 by NI Prime Minister Brian Faulkner, with 342 people arrested on the first day. The Bogside was “hysterical with hated”, according to Eamonn McCann (History Ireland) and of Belfast Kevin Myers wrote “Insanity seized the city.” Two dozen people would die in the rioting and gun-battles that followed, leading to the suspension of Stormont rule (WP). In the Markets area, OC Joe McCann and other (Official) IRA volunteers took over the Inglis bakery and reportedly prevented 600 British troops from entering the area – the image to the left of the board above is a Ciaran Donnelly photograph showing McCann during the battle, kneeling beneath a Starry Plough and holding an M1.

For information on his death the following year, see Joe McCann.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04933 soldier of the people erected by the official republican movement

Of The River

Extramural Activity1 Comment

Here are two more of the metalworks created by Alan Burke (see previously Metalwork) reflecting the industrial heritage of east Belfast. Above are the ropes and chains of a ships’ dock; below is the title piece, “Of The River”, named for the nearby Connswater River. Video of the launch.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04863 X04865

Wings Appeal

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Royal Air Forces Association’s ‘Wings Appeal’ has been raising money to support Air Force members and their families since 1951 (RAFA). This bed of flowers in the pattern of the Air Force’s red, white, and blue roundel (the reverse of the French roundel) is at the start of the Antiville Road in Larne.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04897

No Unauthorised Parking

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

An IRA man in beret and sunglasses puts the frighteners on non-patients tempted to avail themselves of the Clifton Street Surgery car-park.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04915

South Belfast Volunteers

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are five more small boards from the Village. Above is a one to the memory of soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division lost in WWI; the remainder refer to the modern UVF, though all of them include poppies, suggesting that they are memorial in intent and so less menacing than yesterday’s hooded gunman in Welcome To The Village.

Also, previously: Village UVF | A Hive Of Glass| For God And Ulster

X06734 2019-08-02 TatesAve UVF+ c

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04930 X04928 X04927 X04925 X04929 [X04926] X06734

Welcome To The Village

Extramural Activity2 Comments

Small boards (the same size as the Poppy Trail individual commemorative boards, as in XXXVI) have been erected at most of the street corners along Broadway in the Village area of south Belfast. Many are UVF emblems but this one of a hooded gunman aiming at the viewer is a remarkable return to openly paramilitary imagery in the neighbourhood.

See also South Belfast Volunteers | A Hive Of Glass | Village UVF | For God And Ulster

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04924 tavanagh street

Life In The Old Dogs Yet

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In addition to their Easter parade in April (Irish News) and large hoarding celebrating Charlie Hughes and Leila Khaled at the corner of Northumberland Street, IRA D Company’s presence in Divis now includes a cut-out assault rifle and tricoloured “IRA” mounted on the light pole.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04910 X04911

Larne For A Happy Holiday

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These three (reproduction) advertisements date to before partition. Thus (on the left) McNeill’s hotel of “Co Antrim, Ireland”, which also transported tourists along the Antrim coastline, promises information on “How to spend a cheap holiday in the north of Ireland”.

On the right is a poster for State Line steamships, which ran services from Glasgow to Liverpool to New Orleans and from Glasgow to Larne to New York (ShipsList).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04913 X04914 main st

Drug Dealers Will Be Shot

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Drug dealers will be shot!!” “AAD” is Action Against Drugs, a group that emerged from the IRA after disarmament. See previously: Action Against Drugs in Divis | U’ll Do Nottin’ and Drug Dealers Will Be Shot in Ardoyne.

Duncairn Parade, New Lodge.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06000