Twenty-year-old William Frederick McFadzean from Lurgan won the Victoria Cross for throwing himself on top of a crate of hand grenades that fell into his trench on July 1st (WP), the first day of the battle of the Somme; July 1st and 2nd would see 5,000 of his comrades from the 36th (Ulster) Division killed or wounded. The portrait on which the image is based can be seen at CultureNI.
Here’s a recording of the song composed in his honour:
For Armistice Day commemorations 2015 an old mural (below) depicting east Belfast mill workers in cloth caps going to work beneath the H&W cranes was replaced with an image of a single soldier standing over a WWI burial cross with head bowed. In front are the same kind of small wooded crosses and poppies featured on Saturday (Row On Row) from Pitt Park. By Glenn Black and Ken Maze of Blaze FX (web).
Thousands of small wooden crosses, with names and a poppy, were placed in Pitt Park, east Belfast, between November 1st and 11th to commemorate those who fell during WWI. The Last Post was sounded each night at 8. We present here four images of the scene. The event and a similar one on the Shankill (both going by the name Row By Row) were organised by the Dr. Pitt Park Centenary Committee and the Royal British Legion. (City Council minutes)
Samson and Goliath, the cranes of the Harland & Wolff shipyard in east Belfast, stand alongside crosses on the burial grounds of the 36th (Ulster) Division in Flanders (though Cave Hill might be in the background) in this Flora Street mural in east Belfast. UVF flags fly overhead. One of the cranes can be seen in the background of the wide shot, below.
On the headstone in the front-middle is written “Francis Lemon 1916”, perhaps this Francis Lemon, from Ballymacarrett, who died on July 2nd: FindAGrave | IWM.
This WWI mural is fading somewhat after at least eight years on a wall in Strule Gardens, Londonderry. It shows soldiers going over the top, as depicted in JP Beadle’s Attack Of The Ulster Division (belfastsomme.com).
The title comes from the Eric Bogle song No Man’s Land (better known as “The Green Fields Of France” or “Willie McBride”. Here (youtube) is the recording by Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy.)
The memorial garden in Mount Vernon, which previously had and Ulster Volunteers mural and UVF stone has undergone a major redevelopment this year with a new “cut-out” mural to the 36th (Ulster) Division and memorial plaques to six UVF members who died between 1974 and 2000, including (in the second image) Joe Shaw, who was shot by the UDA during the 1974-1975 feud. (For details of the killings and its aftermath, see this Balaclava Street article.) See the final image, below, for the plaque on the outside wall of the garden listing all six members.
On Saturday mornings Brandywell Celtic play in the premier division of the Northwest league, while on Sunday mornings Brandywell Harps and Ballymoor FC play in the Senior league. Brandywell Swifts played in the Astroleague. Also included are the Oakleaf Amateur Boxing Club (Fb) and the Long Tower Judo Club.
The board featured here (above and three shots below) has a dual purpose. On the one hand, it is part of celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle Of Britain, which was waged from July to October in 1940. On the other, it is part of an anti-racism project, celebrating in particular the contributions to the Battle made by roughly 145 Polish aviators (WP) and especially the 303 squadron: “The Polish nation – part of us then, part of us now”. The 303 was later stationed in Northern Ireland for a time. (BBC-NI)
Incidents involving ships of African emigrants seeking refuge in Europe are so many that there is a separate Wikipedia page for them. In response to the crisis, an old mural in Crocus Street (see M01486) remembering the emigration of Irish to North America during the Great Hunger was repainted and the lower part (which had images of the Great Hunger) replaced by stencilling which makes reference to the 2015 situation: “Ireland/Éıre 1845 – Europe/An Eoraıp 2015”, “Refugees welcome – Fáılte roımh theıfıgh”, and “No human is illegal – Níl aon dunıe [duıne] mídhleathach”. It was immediately vandalized with a “not” (see the final image, below; Fb) but has now been repaired, along with the mis-spelling.
Update 2015-10-19: the mural has been graffitied with “SF hate blacks” – see the fourth image, below.
Paul “Maxi” McVeigh scored over 200 goals during his career at Donegal Celtic – “The Wee Hoops” – the team he played his entire career with before retiring at the end of the 2012-2013 season. (Sunday World) The club grounds, and the mural shown above and below, are at the top of the Suffolk Road in west Belfast.
Extramural Activity 