Here is another gallery of teddy-bears and soft-toys wearing “Boycott Israeli genocide” stickers in support of the children of Gaza, this time from the fencing in front of the Royal Victoria Hospital.
See also the soft-toys from the Milltown roundabout junction, former site of the Andersonstown RUC Barracks.
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The UN Security Council last night passed resolution 2712 (UN), calling for extended humanitarian pauses in Israel’s assult on Gaza. The resolution was proposed by Malta, who wrote the resolution to focus on the plight of children. Today’s images show a selection of the teddy bears and other soft toys that have been placed on fences and lamp-posts in CNR west Belfast in memory of the children who have been killed in Gaza. It is estimated that a child dies in Gaza every 10 minutes (Reuters) and that 4,600 children have died so far (UN).
For more on the bears, see Belfast Media.
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William was granted the peerage “baron Carrickfergus” as a wedding present in 2011, which made Catherine/Kate baroness (WP). They visited the town in 2022 (BBC). The black-and-white photograph on the left is of Queen Elizabeth visiting in 1961 (youtube).
Replaces the kids mural We Are Friends in Hawthorn Avenue, Carrickfergus.
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“When it comes to punk, New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason.” – Terri Hooley in 2012’s Good Vibrations (IMDb).
The final incarnation of Hooley’s Good Vibrations record shop (Fb) closed in North Street in 2015 (BelTel). It began in October 1976 at 102 Great Victoria Street (Spit Records | Louder Than War | Spit Records) — the shop and Hooley are included, along with footage of the Undertones, Outcasts, Stiff Little Fingers, and many others — in the 1979 documentary Shellshock Rock (UK viewers can watch at BFI | Spit Records has a great write-up of events surrounding the film’s launch).
The new mural is close to the shop’s second location (from roughly 1984-1993), on the other side of the road, at 121 Great Victoria Street, which itself has had “Good Vibrations” signage reinstated by Zippy (ig) – one of the new pieces around the corner on 127 Great Victoria Street that can be seen in the entry in the Paddy Duffy collection.
Big Time Punk is in Stroud Street, painted by Peaball, specifically RAZER (ig) and NOYS (ig).
The plaque (final image) outside the Harp Bar (in Hill Street) reads, “For the contribution made by Terri Hooley and the role of Good Vibrations to Belfast’s music heritage and putting Belfast on the international music map. The Harp Bar and its shared history of the people and bands who played here. The Outcasts, Rudi, SLF, The Defects, The Undertones and many more 1978-1982.”
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“Cogús supports the republican prisoners”. Cogús (Fb) is (was?) the prisoners’ welfare arm of the RNU. The board above — using a vintage illustration going back to 1981’s I’ll Wear No Convict’s Uniform — replaced More Blacks, More Gays, More Irish on Pantridge Road, Dunmurry, joining the “Join RNU” and mental health boards shown below.
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As the shelling of Gaza continues and the death-toll mounts, there are protests on a daily basis. In Belfast, there were rallies supporting Palestine this week in Poleglass (Xitter), Lenadoon (Xitter), Ardoyne (reddit | Xitter) — home of this new mural showing F-16 jets over Gaza — and more to come in the city centre (Friday) and Dunville Park (Saturday). For more upcoming rallies, see Belfast IPSC (Fb) | Derry IPSC (Fb) | IPSC (Fb).
The final image is from the rally at Queen’s University on November 4th, of a protester with a hand-painted “Saoırse Don Phalaıstín” board.
Murals and graffiti so far:
In Belfast: Stop The Slaughter In Gaza | Palestine And Ireland United In Struggle | Stop Israeli Murder In Gaza | Stop Israeli Terror | Israel Get Out Of Palestine | Free Palestine |
In Derry: Free Palestine | Ireland Supports Palestinian Resistance | Victory To Gaza
And also Ulster & Israel.
Balholm Drive, Ardoyne, north Belfast
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This Castlemara, Carrickfergus, board is not remarkable so much for what it depicts — the new prince and princess of Wales, “baron & baroness of [sic] Carrickfergus” — but for what it replaces, namely, the Carrickfergus Eddie, which had been in place since (at least) 2000 — see Show No Mercy.
This means that there are no large murals of Eddie remaining; there are only some smaller versions of Eddie of boards or tarps. Eddie has his own Visual History page.
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The pigeon gets a crown in imitation of the new UK monarch, Charles III.
Graffiti by Hallion in east Belfast. Previously in this spot: Wear A Mask Or The Easter Bunny Gets It | Thran Rights Nai | Where’s Our 600 Quid?
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“Stop the slaughter – ceasefire now”. A pro-Palestinian board was added to the “International Wall”, Divis Street, and launched on November 4th. The previous Saber Al-Ashkar mural — His Land, His Legs, His Life — has been mostly painted over, with part of the mural remaining at the top and the image of a man carrying a wounded child perhaps deliberately left to the right of the board.
The image represented would appear to be an from social media (probably AI-generated, as no one can say who is depicted or where) of children sitting among their ruined house, surrounded by broken toys, including SpongeBob and Pudsey Bear, with the boy using an incorrect Palestinian flag to cover the girl.
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‘Let’s Talk Loyalism’ (Fb | Xitter) is an advocacy group established in May 2021 “to articulate loyalist perspectives” (News Letter). It produced a survey in September 2021 (Slugger) and is currently undertaking more research (BelTel). The tarp is hanging on the fence around the waste-ground at the top of Lanark Way, site of a #BuildShankill tarp.
See previously: No Vote, No Voice graffiti in Forthriver/Ballygomartin in 2014.
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Extramural Activity 