It’s been a long time since workers walked en masse from east Belfast to the shipyard, but fish and chips remain popular, though the number of chippies has fallen from about 35,000 in 1920 to 10,500 today (BBC | Dockside). This mural is on the side of the ‘Chipyard’ in Strandtown.
See also in the Woodvale: The Chipyard.
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The ‘Peace Wall Stories’ installation along the Cupar Street “peace” line, was launched last Saturday (April 2nd). Photographer Stephen Wilson (web) has produced half-tone portraits in newspaper style, each 2.5 metres tall, of a dozen people from both communities who live near barriers in Belfast.
There is an iPhone/iPad app that goes along with the project, which allows you to point your mobile at a portrait and have the person pictured come alive and speak to you about their experiences; for those without iPhones or the app, the recordings can be heard at the project’s web site.
Part of the Imagine! Belfast Festival, 2022.
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Today’s images come from London but there is an Irish and a Belfast connection. Charlotte Despard was a novelist, suffragist, socialist, pacifist, vegetarian, and Sınn Féın advocate in the years around the Lock Out, the Rising, and the War Of Independence.
She moved from London – where she worked to alleviate poverty among the children of the Battersea area – to Dublin after WWI and was classed as a “dangerous subversive” by the Irish Free State. The image above (which is a panel from a mural celebrating political radicals of Battersea, below) reproduces a photograph of Despard addressing the crowd at an anti-fascist/Communist rally in Trafalgar Square on June 11th, 1933 – four days before her 89th birthday.
At the end of a very long of activism, she moved to Whitehead, County Antrim, where she died in 1939, and was buried in Glasnevin (WP).
A Battersea street is named after her – Charlotte Despard Avenue; the plaque is at 177 Lavender Hill – the offices of the Labour Party in Battersea.
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Copyright © Peter Moloney
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Here are panels from the long Factory Community Forum mural along the Old Glenarm Road in Larne.
From left to right it features: Larne-born sports stars, footballer Gareth McAuley – who gained 80 caps with Northern Ireland (#GAWA)– and boxer Dave ‘Boy’ McAuley – IBF flyweight champion; scientist Albert Einstein (who does not seem to have any connection to Larne); ‘If you dream it, you can achieve it’; DJ Fergie from Larne; Peace begins with a smile (with a map of the counties of South Carolina, USA – Larne is twinned with Clover, SC); a tall ship and Chaine Memorial; the emblems of Larne High School (motto Ad Vera Petenda, which it translates as “we seek truth”) and Moyle Primary School flanking “Factory Community Forum” (Fb).
With support from the International Fund For Ireland.
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“The popular Ulster seaside resort – Larne invites YOU this summer! – Attractions for the old and young. – The place to spend a happy, healthy holiday. Free guides from the town clerk (Dept 5), Larne, Northern Ireland. – McNeill’s 7-day conducted tours, May till September. Motor excursions to Gobbins caves and cliffs, Whitehead, Glenariff glen, Giant’s Causeway, Portrush, Belfast, Garron Tower, Antrim and Lough Neagh, Sallagh Braes, and the famous Antrim coast road.” – This last is shown in the image above, with the Black Arch in the foreground.
Previously: Larne – The Original Tourist Resort | Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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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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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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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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“25 years of regeneration” – 2021 was the 25th year of work in east Belfast for EastSide Partnership (web | tw). This video highlights some of their activities and projects. The tarp shown above is below the Luminaries & Legends board in Connswater Street.
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Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“At the going down of the sun.” The smaller of the two World War memorials in Whitehead was updated last year for the 100th anniversary of the Royal British Legion. The stone (shown last, below) was originally dedicated in 1996, for the 75th anniversary. The plate on the bench reads: “In memory of Mr Royal British Legion, Hector (Sandy) McGregor, 1920-2014. ‘Service not self'”
The larger memorial (shown above) was dedicated in 2019 (Mid&East Antrim) and replaced a smaller memorial which also had the names of the locals who were killed in the world wars. “Greater love hath no man – We will remember them. In grateful memory of the men from Whitehead who gave their lives in World War I & II.” With a wreath from LOL 968.
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Extramural Activity 