The “Ulster’s Finest” mural in Monkstown was remarkable for its depiction of two female volunteers, carrying Uzis, the only depiction of female loyalist volunteers (see Rolston ‘Women on the walls’ in Crime Media Culture 14.3, 2018, p. 373). It was plastered over in 1996 because the gable is next to Hollybank primary. Some of the pebbledash wore away in January/February to reveal the mural – still in good condition – beneath (Vintage_UVF).
Work by NOTA and the TMN crew (see previously) on the construction hoarding around the old Botanic Lodge (87-91 Botanic Avenue) Belfast. Work started in December (2019) on two commercial units and 14 apartments above (Future Belfast).
“By night and by day, I ever, ever pray/While lonely my life flows on/To see our flag unfurled/And my true love [to] enfold/In the valley of Slievenamon.” The lyrics are the final lines of The Valley Of Slievenamon, written by Charles J Kickham “fenian, IRB, poet, novelist, author” and much loved in Tipperary. The heroic hurler, however, is Cú Chulainn (rather than the midlands’ Fionn Mac Cumhaill). Ardoyne Gaelic games club Ciceam Ard Eoin (tw | Fb) was founded in 1907, 25 years after Kickham’s death.
