cultural – Page 3 – Extramural Activity

The Rangers That I Love

2024-01-232025-01-08Extramural Activity3 Comments

Here are images of murals from the interior and the outside patio of the Rangers Supporters Club (Fb) in Carrickfergus. January 2nd, 1971 – included in the panel above – is the date of the Ibrox disaster, in which 66 people died (WP). “Fleshers’ Haugh” [Butchers’ Low-Lying Meadow] – included in the panel below – is the part of Glasgow Green where Rangers played their games in the first three years of the club’s existence (Scotland Guide). Edmiston Drive (above) and Copland Road (third image) are streets adjacent to the stadium.

Also from the Club: a gallery of Rangers’ Managers in We Welcome The Chase | commemorative murals to the 36th Division in A Name That Equals Any In History, the three Scottish soldiers in Highland Fusiliers, and to the UDR in Some Gave All | various others from the laneway and courtyard in We Don’t Do Walking Away.

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we are the people follow follow our lads had a dream the blue blue sea of ibrox absent friends we will remember them all taigs are targets our club will never die

DUP Sellout

2023-12-302025-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

TUV (Traditional Unionist Voice) has put up placards attacking the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) – including outside the office of DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson – in response to the possibility that the DUP might re-enter Stormont – which has been defunct now for two years – and implement the NI Protocol (BBC | BelTel).

It hasn’t happened yet, but a combination of public dissatisfaction concerning inaction over strikes by transport workers on December 22 and a general strike planned for January 18 (ITv)) and a financial package for pay awards are keeping the pressure on (Shropshire Star).

For the Orange symbols above, see Your Kingdom Will Endure Forever; for Psalm 95 see We Are The People; for the Lamentations, see אי כניעה (“No surrender” in Hebrew).

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How Many Loved Your Moments Of Glad Grace

2023-12-212025-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

W. B. Yeats’s poem When You Are Old is generally understood to be directed at Maud Gonne, who was born on this day in 1866. Yeats met the actress and activist in 1899, fell in love with her, and proposed marriage four times in the years to follow, each time being rejected. It is as Yeats’s muse — and not for her mysticism or anti-Semitism or Irish nationalism — that she is the subject of this mural in Union Street, Sligo, painted by artist Nick Purdy of Blowdesigns (Fb) in 2018.

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The Scots In Ulster

2023-12-142025-01-08Extramural Activity1 Comment

The name “Ulster-Scots” refers to the emigrants to North America from Ulster that had previously come from Scotland and the English borders, and most of the Ulster-Scots murals in the 2000s focused on emigration to America and on US Presidents with Scotch-Irish heritage (see the Visual History page of Ulster-Scots murals).

In 2017, a series of boards along York Street focused on industrialists in Northern Ireland with Scottish backgrounds: 13 panels in five posts: one | two | three | four | five. And this new collection of “Ulster-Scots” luminaries (which is 100 paces away) likewise presents figures who are associated with Northern Ireland rather than America. Modern folk such as those portrayed in these new boards presumably have Scottish heritage rather than Scotch-Irish. (The title of this entry – The Scots In Ulster – comes from a Discover Ulster Scots poster about the Scots who came to Ulster in the 1600s, regardless of whether or not they or their descendants later moved to America.)

From left to right, the people shown are as follows. (Links are to previous entries in the Extramural collection.)

Mountcollyer: motorcyclist Rex McCandless, author CS Lewis, physicist John Stewart Bell, song-writer Jimmy Kennedy, medical inventor Frank Pantridge

York Rd: snooker player Alex Higgins, singer Ruby Murray, soldier Blair Mayne, agricultural inventor Harry Ferguson, missionary Amy Carmichael

For the political tarp on the gable in the background, see Choose One Or The Other.

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Dorn San Aer

2023-11-262025-01-08Extramural Activity2 Comments

“Dorn san aer do na Gaeıl [a fist in the air for the Irish] Rónán Mac Aodha Bhuí 1970-2023”.

Mac Aodha Bhuí joined Ráıdió Na Gaeltachta in the 1990s but was best known for his Rónán Beo@3 programme (which is inscribed on the ring on the first), which began in 2006. He was a passionate advocate for the Irish language. He died this past September after a four-year battle with cancer. (RTÉ | Irish Times | Donegal Daily)

The official launch of the mural will be at 2 p.m. on Friday (December 1st).

Fallswater Street, west Belfast

Update: by the time of the launch a photograph of Mac Aodha Bhuí was added.

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Kragfargus Cultural Corner

2023-10-302025-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is the second (at least) iteration of an installation along Taylor’s Avenue, Carrickfergus, showcasing the Ulster-Scots heritage of Carrickfergus and its later contributions to the United Kingdom.

The wall is 60 metres/200 feet in length and can be divided into about ten distinct panels – notes on the different panels are given below, following the order of presentation of images, which show the entire wall moving from left to right.

The original, as seen on Street View, included boards showing the Pretani Isles/British Isles, QEII, and Tom Moore. As seen here, there are now boards to King Charles III, a vintage postage stamp, ‘The Siege Of Carrickfergus’ in 1689, and ‘The Barn Mills Fallen’ of WWI.

Fair Fa’ Ye (or “fair faa ye”) is an (Ulster-)Scots blessing, “fair fall you”, meaning roughly “good luck” (Bloggin Fae The ‘Burn | r/scots | Nelson McCausland).

The stained-glass is called the Dalaradia Window. For images and explanation, see Picts Exiled From Alba.

For Dalaradia, see Kingdom Of The Pretani and the Visual History page on Cú Chulaınn.

James Orr, the ‘Bard Of Ballycarry’, was a contemporary of Robert Burns and a United Irishman. It does not appear that he wrote a poem with the line “I wish I was in Carrickfergus”.

Daniel Cambridge won his VC for service in the Crimean War (WP) and James Crichton for service in WWI (WP).

CarrickfergusHistory includes “the oldest know map of Carrickfergus” from 1560, employing the spelling “Kragfargus”.

The 2/6 postage stamp featuring Carrickfergus Castle was one of four in a “Castle series” in 1955 (WP).

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Fáılte Go Dtí Rodaí Mhıc Corlaí

2023-10-252025-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A new “fáılte” [“welcome”] mural was painted at the Roddy’s in anticipation of the official opening of the new republican heritage centre/ıonad oıdhreachta poblachtaí (web) which took place on September 28th. Construction of the museum and the adjacent restaurant began in May 2021 with an investment of 1.35 million pounds (Belfast Live). The museum’s exhibits cover republican history from 1798 to the present, and items on display from the Society’s collection include vintage uniforms and artefacts, historic maps and documents, and prison handicrafts.

East Club

2023-10-212025-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Welcome to the loyalist East Belfast Working Men’s Club” (Fb) Chamberlain Street, east Belfast.

Sons Of The Somme

2023-10-212025-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“For your tomorrow, we gave our today.” On either side of the central text are “8th battalion RIR” and the emblem of the 36th Division. The East Belfast regiment of the (1912) Ulster Volunteers became the 8th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles and joined the 107th brigade in the 36th Division.

In the corners of the tarp above is the emblem of the Sons Of The Somme flute band, Johnstone (west of Glasgow) (Fb). The tarp is on the (closed) Belvoir Bar on the Newtownards Road. For the “property of East Belfast UVF” stencil and the plaque at the bottom, see Not For Sale.

Castlemara Celebrates

2023-10-162025-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Castlemara residents’ various emotions are on display at the entrace to the estates: celebrating the jubilee of Elizabeth II, the coronation of Charles III, the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, and Rangers’ 55th league title; saluting Tom Moore; commemorating Prince Philip, 1921-2021; and remembering with gratitude the “100th anniversary of the Battle Of The Somme”: “We must not forget what they gave so we may live. Let not their deaths be in vain. Lest we forget.”