Old Firm

Glasgow Celtic stickers on Divis Street, Glasgow Rangers sticker on the Shankill. We can’t really improve upon the WP entry‘s introduction: “the rivalry between [the two teams] has become deeply embedded in Scottish culture. It has reflected, and contributed to, political, social, and religious division and sectarianism in Scotland. As a result, the fixture has had an enduring appeal around the world.” – including Northern Ireland.

See previously: Ultras Celtic | Balance Enquiry
A Matter Of Life And Death | Follow, Follow | The Boys In Blue | We Are The People
Also Gegen Rechts

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Big Love, Belfast

“Grá mór” [lots of love] on an electrical box in Ardmoulin Street. Artist unknown.

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The Falls Road Massacre

Muralist Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly (whose catalogue of work can be seen in a separate site) and others from Gael Force Art (Fb) have mounted a three-piece memorial for the centenary of the Falls Road Massacre in which four people were killed – one of them being Mo Chara’s great uncle Jimmy Shields – in a 5-minute shooting spree by a “special patrol” on the night of the funerals of three men killed by the ‘RIC Murder Gang’ (see the 2007 post). For more background see the memorial’s Facebook page.

More than 500 people were killed in Belfast from 1920 to 1922; for details and their locations see The Social Geography Of Violence During The Belfast Troubles.

“These four innocent local men were murdered by an RIC/British Army death squad near this spot in [September 28th] 1920: James Shields, William Teer, Robert Gordon, Thomas Barkley.” With perhaps the first appearance of a hashtag on a plaque: #fallsroadmassacre1920

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Socialism Is Neither Protestant Nor Catholic

“Socialism is neither Protestant nor Catholic, Christian nor Freethinker, Buddhist, Mahometan, nor Jews [sic]. It is only human. We of the Socialist working class realise that as we suffer together we must work together that we may enjoy together. We reject the firebrand of capitalist warfare and offer you the olive leaf of brotherhood and justice to and for all.” From part 6 of Connolly’s Labour, Nationality And Religion in 1910. The mural is in Beechview Park, across the street from Áras Uí Chonghaile/James Connolly Visitor Centre.

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Le Chéıle – Thegither

East Belfast GAA (tw | Fb) was set up at the end of May, with Linda Ervine as club president (video | Irish Times). The ladies football team recorded the club’s first win, on August 16th, with the hurlers winning on September 3rd, and the camógs on September 19th. The emblem (here shown in somewhat blurred stitching) includes a (black) Ulster hand flanked by shamrock and thistle, over Samson and Goliath (the Harland & Wolff cranes) and “together” as Gaeılge, in English, and in Ulstèr-Scots.

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Yes I Do

“Is deontóır me [mé]. Deonú orgán. Yes I donate. Organ donation.” Dáıthí Mac Gabhann (Donate4Daithí Fb | tw) who suffers from Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, has been looking for a donor heart since January 2018. The new mural is on the “International Wall” in CNR west Belfast; here is an image from the Whiterock Road from the 2018 campaign. Organ Donation Week runs from September 7th to 13th. Artist Tony Bell has completed a painting to support the campaign; it is on display in An Cultúrlann.

X07493 2020-09-02 Deontoir prog 1+

X07662 2020-10-12 TBell Donor Painting+

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Welcome To Carrick Hill

“Fáılte go Cnoc Na Carraıge” in the arch over the entrance to Carrick Hill, with a simplified United Irishmen symbol at the centre.

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A Great Feeling Of Love

“The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality” – Che Guevara Lynch. The INLA’s Kevin Lynch died in the second hunger strike after 71 days. He is buried in Dungiven, where this memorial sits on the main road between Derry and Maghera.

“I ndíl [ndıl] chuımhne ar Óglach Kevin Lynch a fuaır bás ar staılc ocraıs ar son saoırse, 1ú Lúnasa 1981 [who died on a hunger strike for freedom, 1st August 1981]. Erected by the Irish Republican Socialist Ex-Prisoners Memorial Committee.”

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When You Enter This Loving School

“Welcome: When you Enter this Loving school Consider yourself One of the special Members of an Extraordinary family”. Two images from St Patrick’s primary on the edge of the New Lodge. The “Hail Mary’ is written in Irish

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Not All Heroes Wear Capes

“Go raıbh maıth agaıbh/Thank you – Ardoyne + The Bone applaud NHS and all essential keyworkers”, “Stay home, stay safe”. The keyworkers (including shop servers and hospital janitors) all wear masks and gloves. 

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