The trial has begun, before Londonderry Crown Court, of three men accused of the murder of Eddie Meenan, who was stabbed 40-50 times in November, 2018 (Derry Journal | BBC). The graffiti above is on the electrical box at the bottom of Fahan Street, next to a Lasaır Dhearg (web) ‘Don’t join the PSNI’ poster (shown below), with the Che Guevara Lynch mural visible on the left.
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Copyright © 2021 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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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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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Dawn Aston’s (ig) wolf in High Street, Larne, is inspired by the dire wolves in Game Of Thrones (BelTel) and ties that to the disappearance of wolves from Ireland: “Local legend claims that the last wolf in Ireland was found dead in 1712 near a village near Camlough and that the locals rejoiced to be finally rid of the beast, which had taken their livestock and given their children nightmares.”
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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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
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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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The Bloody Sunday march each year follows the same route as was taken on January 30th, 1972, from Creggan shops to the Bogside. For the 50th anniversary of the event, two marches took place, the earlier one ending at the NICRA memorial (unveiled in 1974) where Taoiseach Micheál Martin laid a wreath. For images see Derry Journal | Museum Of Free Derry’s Fb; for the speeches, see the MoFD youtube channel.
A later march ended with speeches at Free Derry Corner (Derry Journal | Derry Now). Today’s images show this march at the Bloody Sunday Commemoration mural by the Bogside Artists (originally painted in 1997 without a cross in the centre). The coal lorry in the image above is of a similar vintage to the one that led the march in 1972 (see final image); the Bedford TK was built from 1960 to 1992 but Springtown Fuels (ig) appears to have one in good condition.
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Copyright © 2021 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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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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Extramural Activity 