Andersonstown boxer Anto “The Apache” Cacace (ig) successfully defended his IBO super-featherweight title on May 10th, defeating Leigh Wood of (and in) Nottingham (BBC). Cacace originally won the title in May last year (2024) and was honoured by a mural in South Link.
This commercial hoarding depicts Cacace as the godfather, perhaps a reference to his father’s Italian heritage (DAZN) and/or to Joel Cacace of the Colombo mafia in New York (WP).
The Don Patricio/Patrick O’Connell mural at the bottom of the Whiterock Road was refreshed for Féıle 2024. The major change is in the middle of the mural, where Lionel Messi – who went to Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 and then to Inter Miami in 2023 – has been replaced by current stars Aitana Bonmatí and Lamine Yamal. (A modern soccer-ball replaces the leather ball of the original mural, patches have been added to O’Connell’s jacket, and the FAI trophy and the large Cup Winner’s medal has been removed to make room for Bonmatí.) The new mural was relaunched on August 2nd, 2024, with an address by the director of the FC Barcelona museum at Camp Nou (Belfast Media).
For more – on O’Connell’s career as a player and manager, the emblems in the stands, and the headlines on the newspaper – see From Celtic Park To Barcelona.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John 3:16). And, greater love hath no man but to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13, often used in the context of military sacrifice). But local homes are for local people. (The use of a stencil is a step up in sophistication.)
The Union Flag fills the empty frame where there used to be a list of locals who died in The Belfast Blitz.
World War II ended in Europe at 11 p.m. on May 8th, after Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allied forces. The date was dubbed “Victory In Europe Day” or “VE Day” and this year (2025) marks its eightieth anniversary. For the occasion, this Shankill Road shop-window has been decorated with sandbags and camouflage netting, along with a vintage photograph of the residents of nearby “Wiltton” [Wilton] Street from the summer of 1945.
The text on the poster (lower down the road) reads: “‘My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not the victory or of any class, it’s a victory of the Great British people as a whole. We were the first, in these ancient isles, to draw the sword against tyranny.’ – Prime Minister Winston S Churchill”. The lines come from brief remarks Churchill made to the crowds assembled at the Ministry Of Health in London – the text can be found at Forces News; Pathé newsreel of Churchill’s earlier radio announcement of the end of the war can be found on youtube.
This new piece from Belfast One BID is full of literary references (web). The blackberries (top left of the image above) are perhaps for Seamus Heaney, and the kites (bottom right of the image above) are perhaps for John Hewitt. Comment/Get in touch if you can identify others.
Below the Linen Hall library in Fountain Street, Belfast city centre.
Leitrim’s “literary heritage” is recognised by this large mural by Nik Purdy/Blow Designs (ig) in Main Street, Carrick-On-Shannon. Clockwise from top we see portraits and quotes from …
Canon [William] Slator: “You’ll never find more beauty/Peace and welcome all combined/Than along the Shannon River/where your cares are left behind.”
Nora J Murray: “There are silver waters lapping/Under arches grey and brown/When the swans come up the river/To the bridge in Carrick town”
John McGahern: “I think fiction is a very serious thing, that while it is fiction, it is also a revelation of truth.” (2000 interview)
MJ McManus: “The people came to drink the soup/Ladled from greasy bowls/They died in whitewashed wards that held/A thousand Irish souls” (from the poem ‘Eighteen Forty-Nine’)
Susan Mitchell: “No bigger than a bulrush./I beside the rushy Shannon cry./There are no children on the shore./The singing voices sing no more./The sea draws all the rivers down./And love has sailed from Carrick town.” (from the poem ‘Carrick’ – Google Books)
The monument in front of the mural is also to Mitchell.
“The cry was no surrender” – in preparation for the Twelfth, Ulster Banners, the Union Flag are posted along a fence in upper Shankill below a Shankill Old Boys (Fb) tarp and a band flag using St Patrick’s Saltire as a background. On the big day, the band paraded (Parades’ Commission) from the Shankill into the city centre (youtube), and back again after the demonstration in Barnett’s Demense (GOLI).
Discover Ulster-Scots (web) has added some more boards in north Belfast, joining the recent gallery of famous figures at Mountcollyer Avenue (see The Scots In Ulster).
The boards shown here are in North Queen St: “Ulster-Scots have been making Belfast a better place for over 400 years. Many of Belfast’s leading charitable, religious and educational institutions were founded by Ulster-Scots.” with images of BRA (James Crombie), Clifton House (possibly William Tennant is intended), the Linen Hall Library (a list of founders can be found on page 11 of this History), the Assembly buildings (of the Presbyterian church), and Queen’s (John Mowat).
Additional new boards, concerning soda farls and potato bread, and brown lemonade, can be seen in the Paddy Duffy Collection: The Ulster Fry.
“DUP backs united Ireland in coming border poll, Mon, 5th May”. This image updates one of the images from two weeks ago of the re-painted mural at Madden’s bar in the city centre – see Sásta A Bheıth Anseo. Initially the newspaper showed a headline relating to the prosecution of DUP (now-former) leader Jeffrey Donaldson on charges of rape and sexual assault.
The DUP in January flirted (strategically) with the idea of supporting a border poll (BBC) but their more typical stance is that the conditions for a poll are not close to being met (News Letter).
While elections sometimes fall on the 5th as the first Thursday in May – most recently the 2022 Assembly elections (CAIN) – the date here is probably a nod to the anniversary of Bobby Sands’s death (in 1981).
6: The Pathways Window – according to the guide, this window commemorates the pain caused to the relatives of deceased persons from whom organs were taken without consent.
Extramural Activity 