At the same time that the new David Ervine board was put in place, the existing board next to it, which dates to 2008, was spruced up. The image above is a wide shot of both boards, while the image below shows the commemorative casting in front. For the original board, see David Ervine; for explanations of the sculpture, including its pipe, prayer-book, ticket, and boots, see Memory Chair.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Bobby Sands’s poem The Rhythm Of Time, published in 1981 as part of Prison Poems, is printed in full along with images of Long Kesh and other prisons in which republican prisoners were held.
The work was launched 2014-08-10, to coincide with the anniversary of the introduction of interment in 1971 (see e.g. this BBC news report).
Ardoyne Avenue, north Belfast
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02082 1954 h-block palestinian flag starry plough dedicated to all past and present principled ex-prisoners maidstone maghaberry crumlin magilligan armagh women’s rooney toal
There’s an inner thing in every man, Do you know this thing my friend? It has withstood the blows of a million years, And will do so to the end.
It was born when time did not exist, And it grew up out of life, It cut down evil’s strangling vines, Like a slashing searing knife.
It lit fires when fires were not, And burnt the mind of man, Tempering leadened hearts to steel, From the time that time began.
It wept by the waters of Babylon, And when all men were a loss, It screeched in writhing And it hung bleeding from the Cross.
It died in Rome by lion and sword, And in defiant cruel array, When the deathly word was ‘Spartacus’ Along the Appian Way.
It marched with Wat the Tyler’s poor, And frightened lord and king, And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare, As e’er a living thing.
It smiled in holy innocence, Before conquistadors of old, So meek and tame and unaware, Of the deathly power of gold.
It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets, And stormed the old Bastille, And marched upon the serpent’s head, And crushed it ‘neath its heel.
It died in blood on Buffalo Plains, And starved by moons of rain, Its heart was buried in Wounded Knee, But it will come to rise again.
It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes, As it was knelt upon the ground, And it died in great defiance, As they coldly shot it down.
It is found in every light of hope, It knows no bounds nor space It has risen in red and black and white, It is there in every race.
It lies in the hearts of heroes dead, It screams in tyrants’ eyes, It has reached the peak of mountains high, It comes searing ‘cross the skies.
It lights the dark of this prison cell, It thunders forth its might, It is ‘the undauntable thought’, my friend, That thought that says ‘I’m right!’
“He had the courage to climb out of the traditional trenches, meet the enemy in no man’s land and play ball with him.” David Ervine was a UVF member, arrested in 1974 and served six years in the Maze before turning to politics. He first ran for office in 1985 and represented East Belfast in the NI Assembly from 1998 until his death in 2007. The new board, above, shows Ervine’s silhouette in a wreath of poppies along with pictures of and information about his life; the image below of the lower left-hand side includes a photograph of Ervine with Gusty Spence.
Video of the launch (on 2014-11-01) is available at U.tv
The info plaque on the right describes the Memory Chair sculpture in front of the first Ervine board.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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21st july 1953 8th january 2007 red hand comrades association progressive unionist party of northern ireland
“David Ervine was born in nearby Chamberlain Street, the youngest of five children. A lifelong supporter of Glentoran Football Club he was a true son of East Belfast. David attended Avoniel Primary School and Orangefield Boys High School. Leaving school before his fifteenth birthday he began his working life in an atmosphere of tension and violent confrontation. At nineteen he joined the UF. He was arrested in 1974 and served five years in Long Kesh, a wasteland that he and other prisoners transformed into a place of personal and political growth and development. A founding member of the Progressive Unionist Party and its most articulate spokesperson, he was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum, Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Assembly. David Ervine was a truly inspirational leader. With vision and courage he led his community from violence to peace, winning the respect of friend and foe alike. He gave voice to the common man and woman acting always in the interest of peace and his beloved Ulster.”
The original ‘Flower Pot Men’ was a radio show in 1951 and then a television series in December 1952; it featured the adventures/mishaps of two flower pot men, ending – because they were identical – with the question ‘Which of those two flower pot men – was it Bill or was it Ben?” The few (10? IMDb) episodes produced were repeated until 1970. “Bill” and “Ben” were the names of the younger brothers of creator Hilda Brabban and ‘Little Weed’ was based on her younger sister, Phyllis (Toonhound | Daze Of Our Lives). The characters were revived in 2001 and given a new look; the garden ornaments above from in a yard in Monkstown are based on the modern pair, though painted in red, white, and blue.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Four images portray a long graffito on the Cupar Way “peace” line. In full, it reads:
Provisional IRA leader Gerry Adams on Sinn Feins stadgey [= strategy] of Orange parades
“Ask any activist, did Drumcree happen by accident and they tell you “No”.
“3 years of hard work helped create those situations for us to exploit.”
Drumcree, Ormo [= Ormeau], Twad[d]ell, Dunloy. “Where next”??
Wood (Crimes Of Loyalty p. 202) gives the following quote, reportedly a transcript of remarks made by Adams at a Sınn Féın meeting in Meath, as, “Ask any activist in the North, did Drumcree happen by accident, and he will tell you “No.”. Three years of work on the Ormeau Road, in Portadown, and parts of Fermanagh and Newry, Armagh, and in Bellaghy, and up in Londonderry [other sources, such as the Irish Times, give the much more likely “Derry”]. Three years of work went into creating that situation and fair play to those who put the work in. They are the type of scene chances we need to focus on and develop and exploit.”
Descriptions of the contentious parades in the places mentioned can be found on CAIN.
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Below the “peace” line, a confederate flag flies alongside the union jack over a new board in Cluan Place reading “Unbowed, Unbroken” and “east Belfast UVF” graffiti.
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The aspect of Cave Hill commonly known as Napoleon’s Nose is shown sheltering the people of Newington, surrounded by heroes and emblems of the past – Bobby Sands, Wolfe Tone, and in the centre, Winifred Carney. This republican mural is both internally directed (at Newington and the New Lodge) and externally, being on the main Antrim Road (Oceanic avenue, on the side of the Sinn Féin office) which is a main artery between the city and points north.
“Ag aontú Caıtlıceach, Protastúnach agus Easaontóırí.” – “Uniting Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter.” In An Argument On Behalf Of The Catholics Of Ireland (1791), Wolfe Tone of the United Irishmen wrote, “To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country, these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman, in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, these were my means.”
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Hugh Smyth OBE was born in the Woodvale area and represented the upper Shankill as an Independent Unionist and then a Progressive Unionist in Belfast City Council for forty-one years, until the year before his death in May 2014, including a term as Lord mayor in 1994-1995 – he is pictured in the main image (above) in his mayoral robes.
The portrait on the right (shown solo below) was taken by Bobbie Hanvey and is kept in a Boston College archive; more from the archive of 50,000 images can be seen at BC.edu and on Flickr.
As the quote (shown in the final image below) indicates, his politics were oriented towards the working class: “Historically, Unionist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were first class citizens… and without question people believed them. Historically, Republican/Nationalist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were second class citizens… and without question the people believed them. In reality, the truth of the matter was that we all, Protestant and Catholic, were third class citizen, and none of us realised it!” The board was officially launched on June 19th.
Replaces 90 Years Of Resistance.
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X02044 X02045 X02046 canmore st 40 years’ service to the people of the shankill 1939-2014
Her Majesty’s Prison Belfast, better known as The Crumlin Road Gaol, was visited by the Queen on Tuesday (2014-06-24), probably not at the beckoning of this advertisement on the corner of Divis and Northumberland streets, next to the mural of Kieran Nugent and Brendan Hughes. One of the former residents of the jail, Martin McGuiness, showed the Queen around (which not everyone was happy with – The Guardian).
The jail opened in 1846 (under Queen Victoria, during the Hunger), closed in 1996, was transferred to OFM/dFM in 2003, and opened to the public in 2007 (DSI). Other notable prisoners include seven militant suffragettes (among them Dorothy Evans and Madge Muir, arrested for possession of explosives BBC – includes 6 min. audio | Belfast Suffragettes | WRDA), Eamon De Valera, Bobby Sands, Ian Paisley, and Michael Stone (WP), as well as Tom Mitchell and Phil Clarke, elected to Westminster in 1955 for Sinn Féin while still in prison (An Phoblacht).
Audio tour of the prison from CultureNI | Video footage of the Queen’s visit from The Telegraph.
The (unattributed) photo on which the Kieran Nugent mural is based in included below. See also this BBC video.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01914 the only way they’ll get a prison uniform on me is if they nail it to my back the first blanket man free margaritta d’arcy margaretta (WP) smash h-block wanted for murder and torture irish torchlight march rally margaret thatcher
Extramural Activity 