Work-site curtaining on Inverary Avenue bears a protest message concerning the residents of a new development by Trinity Housing. “Trinity House – Local people in local homes! In it for the long haul! Protest still ongoing. No change until Trinity sees sence. Nobody moving in until local residents are housed!!”
Above is a recently-added banner, from Tiger’s Bay loyalists, to the Twaddell Avenue protest camp – Carson’s statue in front of Stormont with the words ‘We will not be the generation to fail Ulster. Ulster is British. No Surrender’. A wide shot of the south side of the street, where the camp is, can be found below.
The first, above is of ‘the angel with the book’, a reference to Revelation 10: “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.” (King James trans.)
The second, below, shows Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley being burnt at the stake in 1555. “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England [as I trust] shall never be put out.” (WP)
Last weekend (September 14th and 15th) saw many buildings typically closed to the public open up for European Heritage Open Days. Among those was the Orange hall on Clifton Street. Military and religious themes were prevalent throughout, as images over the coming days will illustrate.
The language of “civil rights” and “equality” is being used at the Twaddell site, as can be seen in the placard shown here there are three copies of this sign: the second image, below, is of one on the north side of the street (visible in the previous set of Twaddell pictures) and the third image shows an additional copy on the electrical box on the south side of the street.
“Established to campaign for Equality. Civil Rights. Welcome to all who support the campaign. The two main objectives are to see the Ligoniel lodges, bands and supporters complete their 12th july parade; to have the current parades commission removed. Please note the camp and the surrounding area is an alcohol free zone. All music must finish by 9 p.m. and the wishes of the local residents fully respected. Thank you for your support. United we stand – divided we fall.”
Printed and framed tarp in Bombay Street, commemorating the burning of Bombay Street during the August 1969 Belfast riots and the death Gerald McAuley, a young IRA member (Fian, not “Fiann” as written here) killed by a sniper during the trouble. Three photographs from the street at the time are reproduced in the bottom third of the board.
Ten years ago, an earlier incarnation of this board could be found on the other side of the street, connected to the issue of the day: No (Decom)mission.
Three images from the protest camp at the top of Twaddell Avenue, at the southern border of Ardoyne. The protest is in response to a parades commission ruling that, on July 12th, Orange marches could only go past the Ardoyne shops in the morning but not return via the same route.
Three images of flags on two republican bonfires, built to commemorate the introduction of internment in 1971. According to news reports (e.g. BBC-NI), the ‘Celebrating Our Culture’ banner on this bonfire at the base of Divis tower had been stolen from Linfield Road in south Belfast (it hung to the left of the mural to the left in this image) but was subsequently removed from the bonfire (whether or not it was returned is not reported). The image above is from Thursday (Aug. 8th). (Last year’s bonfire also had stolen PUL banners: see M08775.)
The flag in the second image (an Ulster flag with a tricolour in the corner and the words ‘The Only Ulster’ on the bottom) was on the Divis bonfire during construction on Wednesday but removed by Thursday. The third image is of a bonfire in Beechmount (between Corpus Christi and St. Paul’s schools) flying the flags of various loyalist groups, as well as the Union flag and the Northern Ireland flag.