The Northern Ireland football team will be taking part in Euro 2016, which runs from June 10th to July 10th and so includes the centenary of the Battle Of The Somme on July 1st. You can pick up shirts for both events in this Shankill Road store.
These images all come from Stanley’s Walk, along with eastern side of Celtic Park, which is home to Derry GAA games and has a capacity of 18,000 spectators.
Players from Scottish football team Celtic and local team Cliftonville “do the huddle” together. The mural was painted in 2013 to celebrate the visit by Celtic to Solitude (Cliftonville’s home pitch) for a Champions League tie between the two teams.
A mural outside Solitude was also painted for the occasion – see The Red Army.
The main part of a Red Hand Commando mural was replaced recently with a board commemorating the action and deaths of the British Army’s 36th (Ulster) Division in World War I’s Battle Of The Somme, of which Captain Wilfrid Spender wrote, “I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday, the 1st July, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world. My pen cannot describe adequately the hundreds of heroic acts that I witnessed … The Ulster Volunteer Force, from which the division was made, has won a name which equals any in history.”
As shown in the three additional images, part of the old mural (and its plaques) remains on the right, “In memory of all loyalists who gave their lives in defence of Ulster – Lest we forget.”
For images of the launch (on 2016-03-08) see Belfast Live.
This is a new Somme centenary mural in Carnmoney/Ballyduff, in memorial of the First World War and 1916 in particular. It also serves as a memorial to members of the Pride of the Hill flute band, David Lee and Kris Muckle. (It’s not clear what “Vivete in somnio” means – neither “vivete” nor “somnio” are Latin; “vivete” is Italian but “somnio” is not. Get in touch/leave a comment if you know what is intended.)
In preparation for the upcoming marching season, the Young Conquerors Flute Band is looking for new members to fill to roles of “drummers, fluters, bass drummers, colour party”. Three posters on the Shankill Road.
Above is a pro-Gaelic (Irish-language) mural on the Whiterock Road, with signs in Irish being held by young people protesting cuts to social services (on the left) and (on the right) a short poem: “Tá Fraıncıs ag na Francaıgh/Tá Gréıgıs ann sa Ghréıg/Tá Iodáıl[ı]s ag na hIodálaıgh/Bíodh Gaeılge ag na Gaeıl.” That is: the French have French, the Greeks Greek, the Italians Italian; let there be Irish for the Irish.
The mural has been in this (unfinished?) state since October, 2015. Loading? The third line in fact has initial “L”s rather than “I”, which suggests — if a fada is added over the “o”s and the final “s” removed from “Lodáıls” — “the loaders have loading”
Information on-line is scarce concerning Broadway United FC. They might have been an intermediate team but are said to have won the junior Irish Cup in 1912 — the date of the image above in which the team poses with its trophies — beating Black Watch FC 1–0.
Liverpool’s longest serving player, goalkeeper Elisha Scott (WP), began his career at Broadway United, playing there for two years before making 402 appearances at Anfield and then going to Belfast Celtic as player and manager. The Irish Times has a profile of Elisha and his brother Billy, goalkeeper at Everton. (Thanks to John Duffin for these links.)
Three bandsmen – the first two of which, at least, are members of the UVF Regimental Flute Band, one in a vintage and another in a modern uniform – parade together in a new mural in Pitt Park. The UVF Regimental will be going to France for the centenary commemorations of the Battle of the Somme.
The long wall on Newtownards Road, “Freedom Corner”, has been repainted over the past nine months — apparently the protective coating that had been applied to the murals in fact caused the paint to peel; alternatively, police water cannon caused the peeling (Tele) — and the murals were launched with a parade on Easter Saturday (March 26th, 2016). Above is shown the Young Newton UYM mural at the extreme right-hand side of the wall.