As you head west along Falls Road, you will pass by the three landmark buildings depicted in the mural above: Clonard Monastery, Cultúrlann McAdam-Ó Fıaıch (opposite this mural and the offices of Fáılte Feırste Thıar), and the entrance to Milltown Cemetery at the edge of Andersonstown. For the parts of the mural in Brighton Street, see The Conlan Revolution and Fáılte Feırste Thıar.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Fáılte go Cnoc na Foınse – Welcome to Springhill.” There are a dozen new boards on either side of the Ballymurphy entrance to Springhill, highlighting positive aspects of the community, such as the work of Mother Teresa and four Missionary Sisters Of Charity from 1971-1973, the Upper Springfield Festival of 1973 (later revived in 1988 and years following as the Springhill Festival), Tara Stores and The Craft Centre, set up as a form of local enterprise in an area of mass unemployment, and the Springhill Community House, still in operation today but going back to Des Wilson and Noelle Ryan. There is no explicit mention of the 1972 Springhill-Westrock Massacre, though there is a picture of Fr Noel Fitzpatrick on the south side of the street, which will be featured in a separate post.
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John Leathem, chairman of the Divis Tower Falls Residents’ Association, died in his flat on the 19th floor of Divis Tower in August last year (2017), after returning to the Tower four years previously when he was diagnosed with cancer (Irish News | Tele). He was described by Sınn Féın MLA Fra McCann as “a champion for the people of no property” (An Phoblacht). This new mural is outside his former office on the first floor.
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The emblem on the flats at the mini-roundabout (where Glandore and Skegoneill avenues meet) depicts a tree and a face, perhaps a reference to the name “Skegoneill” or ‘the earl’s thorn bush” after the place at which Anglo-Norman earl William de Burgo was assassinated in 1333 (PlaceNamesNI).
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“Serving the community for over fifty years.” BTCIC is the current name for what was previously the West Belfast Taxi Association. Black taxis have been running up and down the Falls since 1970, providing an alternative form of transportation to local people during the Troubles when buses were cancelled or, as in this picture, burnt out and used as barricades. They now, in addition, provide tours of the murals (such as the Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street) and Belfast city. Taxi Trax has a web site but here provides a phone number for those already at the International Wall, where there has been a black taxi mural since 2003. There are other WBTA murals in Beechmount and Ardoyne. The painters have signed the mural: Doherty’s Coal Merchant and Lyons Tea.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A UVF board covers up the diamond tiling in the gable wall of the ViVO supermarket in the Glen Estate, Newtownards.
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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The notice board for the Factory Community Forum in the Boyne Square/Ferris Park area of Larne has seen better days. The group’s web site is operational but advertising events from 2015.
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Here are two more images (in addition to yesterday’s) of the new mural of the old Smithfield Market in Gresham Street by KVLR and JMK. According to the Glenravel booklet on the market, its creation goes back to about 1770. The title of the post is how the market was described in when a cover was added in the late 1800s (CultureNI); the booklet contains a directory from 1880 that includes tinsmiths, a basket maker, a cooper, and a hackler (a flax-comber).
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Here are two images – one close-up, one wide shot – of the new mural in Gresham Street by KVLR and JMK of the old Smithfield Market. The market was fire-bombed in 1974 (gallery of 10 images at the Tele), quickly rebuilt with wood, and replaced permanently in 1986.
There’ll be two more images tomorrow. For images of the existing market, and paintings inside it of the old market, see Smithfield Market and My Old Toy Box.
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Extramural Activity 