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Ulster’s Defence Force

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2014-03-10 CuchulainnCityHall+

In the Cattle Raid of Cooley/Táın Bó Cúaılnge, the hero Cú Chulaınn, the main figure in the stained glass above, single-handedly defends Ulster by engaging in series of Queen Medb’s men in hand-to-hand combat as they attempt to secure the famous Ulster bull, which Medb wants in order to match her husband in possessions. Cú Chulaınn is eventually vanquished and the bull taken but, as can be seen at the bottom of the glass, the bulls fight each other and both die.

The piece is by Martin Donlin from East Sussex (pictured here at the unveiling in March 2012). According to Donlin’s Fb page, the old Irish at the bottom (“bendachtar cech óen mebraıgfes go hındraıc táın amlaıd seo ‘s ná tuıllfe cruth aıle furrı”) can be translated as “a blessing be upon all such as faithfully keep the Táın in memory as it stands here and shall not add any other form to it”. Here is a Flickr set of the piece in development.

Previously-featured City Hall stained glass: One Big Union | Famine Window | Centenary Window

See also the Visual History page, In The Shadow Of Cú Chulaınn.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Centenary Window

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2014-02-28 CityHallIndustry1906+

This stained glass by Ann Smyth was designed for the centenary of the construction of Belfast city hall, 1906-2006. At the top are the wolf and seahorse of the Belfast coat of arms, the city hall, and a tree of life. Below these we have a landscape in the style of John Luke’s The Fox, modified with a Massey Ferguson tractor and an electric hare (which CultureNI claims was invented by a Belfast man) instead of the fox. To the right of these stand a guitar, an artist’s palette, boxing gloves, various sports balls, and snooker’s fifteen reds. Ernest Walton smashed the atom in 1932. Short Brothers in 1957 produced the world’s first vertical take-off and landing aircraft and in 1963 the Skyvan. We also see the Waterfront, the Big Fish, the Thanksgiving Square Beacon, and Harland & Wolff’s Samson & Goliath and Titanic. In the bottom left corner is a town page upon which is repeated the refrain from I’ll Tell Me Ma: “She is handsome, she is pretty, she is the belle of Belfast city”.

Previously: One Big Union | Famine Window

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Famine Window

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2014-02-19 CityHallEmDetail+

Above is a detail from, and below is the whole of, a stained glass window in Belfast City Hall commemorating emigration and the great hunger, commonly known as “the famine”. The piece is by Stephen Calderwood of GlassMarque. The window shows a sailing vessel and the coast of north America, scenes of destitution, Clifton House (home to the Belfast Charitable Society, on Clifton Street), and a potato harvest.

Friar’s Bush and Clifton Street graveyards both contain the remains of people in died in the famine (and in cholera epidemics).

Previously: One Big Union (stained glass in City Hall) | White Line (stained glass in the Cultúrlann)

2014-02-19 CityHallEm+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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One Big Union

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2014-02-19 CityHallWindow+

“Not as Catholics or Protestants, not as Nationalists or Unionists, but as Belfast workers standing together.” Belfast City Hall has a number of colourful stained-glass windows, one of which is shown here. It features Belfast industry and Jim Larkin who, while more famous for the Dublin lock-out of 1913, also led a strike by the National Union Of Dock Labourers (NUDL) in Belfast in 1907. In 1908 the ITGWU (the One Big Union, OBU) was formed.

Previous posts involving Larkin: Til Labour Knows No Master | We Only Want The Earth | Shed Lockout | John Quinn

Video of the unveiling, in May 2007

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White Line

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2014-01-27 CulturlannWindow+

The stained-glass window shown above is on the stairs in An Chultúrlann. It was designed in conjunction with the Windsor Women’s group (Ionad Na mBan Windsor) to commemorate the fact that the place was formerly a Presbyterian church (1896-1982 Eaglaıs Preıspitéıreach, Broadway). The broken white lines which form the cross also stand for road markings. The glass also features the sun, a burning bush, a rainbow, and a Celtic shield. Unveiled June 22nd, 2012.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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