Geordie Bell

2014-01-30 GeordieBell+

Geordie Bell was caretaker at the Short Strand community centre, on the other side of this mural, as well as a trade unionist and republican. A piece of art in the Skainos centre is dedicated to his memory (East Belfast Mission).

On the same wall: Tree-Teapot-Street

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Needful Things

2014-02-18 Needful Things+

A fake shopfront in The Square in Portaferry. There are doors behind the doors and a window behind the array of sweet jars.

Previously: Fake shopfronts Yes, We Are Closed (Dungiven) | Down The Shops (Newtownards Rd) | Semiotics (Newtownards Rd)

Previously: Closed stores Recession in Fivemiletown | Sew What (Crossmaglen)

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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1st East Antrim Battalion

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UVF mural in Glengormley featuring the familiar seal and a pair of hooded gunmen. This mural is on the same street as They Live With Us.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Et In Arcadian Ego

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The area known as the Pound Loney is featured in a long mural in Durham Street. The Pound Loney is Divis or the lower part of Divis on either side of Cullingtree Road; a “loney” is a lane and originally a natural path, in this case next to a stream beside the sheep-pound that existed before the area was developed for housing (Old Belfast Districts).

The mural features many of the place-names, landmarks, and personalities of yesteryear, including the Arcadian cinema on Albert Street – left of centre in the full shot below; see also the two images below of the Arcadian in happier days and in 1969, at the start of the troubles (images from Cinema Treasures and the Belfast Forum). Also featured are the Divis tower block, the Blessed Virgin mural, Barney’s mill, McGahan’s pub, Saint Peter’s. The streets include Barrack St, Galway St, Cullingtree Rd, Scotch St, Christian Place, Derby St, Castle St, Pound St, Nail St, Currie St, Albert St, Brook St, Jude St, Hamill St, Divis St, Milford St and Massereene (Row or Path or Walk) in Divis flats. If you can identify any of the characters in the mural, please leave a comment.

Previously: Lampost swinging | Mickey Marley’s Roundabout | Saint Peter’s

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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What Do We Forget When We Remember?

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Two poems are featured prominently and another two alluded to in this Newtownards mural and memorial garden to WWI soldiers. The main panel features part of an anti-war work by Owen Griffith, Lest We Forget. Robert Laurence Binyon’s For The Fallen is featured on the stone, above a line of Latin from Horace’s Odes (III.2) – On Virtue (which most famously re-appears in Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est). On the left and right (see the wide shot at the very bottom) there appear the mottos of the Royal Irish Rifles – ‘Quis separabit’, which comes from Romans 8:35 – and the Royal Artillery – ‘Ubique – Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt’, which comes from Kipling’s Ubique.

For the (WWI) 13th battalion RIR, see Regimental List and similarly for the 16th (rather than the 17th) “Pioneers”. For the (WWII) 5th Anti-Aircraft battery, see Newtownards History.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01628 X01627 X01629 X01630 13th batt. and 17th (Pioneers) batt. royal irish rifles 5th light anti-aircraft royal artillary artillery (S.R.) at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

They Live With Us

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“They live with us/in memory still/not just today/ but always still.” Mural and memorial in Queen Street, Glengormley, to South East Antrim UFF/UDA/UYM volunteers A. Helm, G[erald] Evans, W. Gordan, J. Woods, and T. McDonald.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01673 UFF 2nd Batt. A. Coy dedicated to all our fallen comrades of south east antrim brigade

Waterworld

2014-02-13 MaighArdCanoe+

Maıgh Ard/Moyard and New Barnsley are at no risk of flooding, but this mural clearly shows the locals long to be paddling down the slopes of Black Mountain/Slıabh Dubh in canoes and kayaks .

2014-02-13 MaighArdWater+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Throw-In

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A seven-year old Setanta become Cú Chulaınn (Culann’s Hound) after killing the beast by driving a sliotar (the ball used in hurling) down its throat. Detail from a mural in Roumania Rise, off Ross Road. Wide shot of the whole below. The lettering reads “Mol na nóıge agus tıocfaıdh sí [sic]” [as written: praise the young and it [sic] will flourish; usually the phrase is “Mol an óıge …” “praise youth …”]

2014-02-05 RossRdHurling+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01668 X01667 gaelic games hurling

Standing Guard

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Here are four shots of a late 2011 UVF mural, with memorial wall, on Ballymacarrett Road in east Belfast. The four members named are Robert Seymour, shot dead by the PIRA; James Cordner and Joseph Long, who were killed in a premature explosion, and Robert Bennett, killed by the British Army during a riot. These same four are commemorated in the controversial 2013 mural featured in Years Of Sacrifice.

The nearby memorial (through the railings of which the third image, below, was taken) was constructed in 2003.

2013 saw the 25th anniversary of Seymour’s death; the final image, below, is of a flyer announcing a commemorative parade.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

2013-10-17 SqueakSeymour+

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01509 X01512 X01510 X01511 X01397 murdered 15th june 1988 joseph long killed in action 27th feb 1977 james cordner robert bennett 7th 1973 in proud memory of fallen comrades ulster volunteer flute band east belfast memorial parade in memory of volunteer squeak 25th anniversary saturday 15th june 2013 leaving parkview bar at 6.00 pm finishing at mural on island street lest we forget

Champions

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Here is a 2011 image of a 2005? boxing mural off Ross Road. The lower parts look like they have gone 10 rounds with graffiti artists. In the foreground is a mural featuring local boxers from the Immaculata Amateur Boxing Club (on the nearby Albert Road); in the distant mural, Muhammad Ali.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00381 danny sweetpea martin paul beaver ryan frank coco paddy rogie