Newbuildings Victoria

The garden of remembrance in Newbuildings was opened in November, 2018, and has grown to include several boards (second image), including “Newbuildings Victoria LOL 1087 remembers our murdered brethren.” (for “Orange Victims” day in September, 2019), troops going over the top at the Somme, and a Celtic Cross with Irish-based British Army regiments (and their battles): Royal Irish Rifles, Royal Irish Fusiliers, Royal Irish Rangers, and Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. On the front railings are now tarps related to the pandemic (“Thank you to all our NHS staff and essential workers from the local Orange family. Together fighting Covid-19”) and the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

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Copyright © 2020 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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Stay Apart, Stay In Touch

“Social distancing” during the coronavirus epidemic means maintaining a physical distance in social situations rather than not having any communication with society. On the contrary, communities are working together perhaps more closely than normal in order to assist those who are in need of support. The Sınn Féın board, above, on the railings of the Duncairn Centre (web | tw) (formerly Duncairn Presbyterian). Identical signs at the Waterworks and Cherryvale drew comment from Alliance as being party-political in shared spaces (BelTel).

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07119 X07120 Antrim Rd ag obaır ar do shon covid-19 north belfast community support advice elderly vulnerable foodbank

Imprisoned In A Glass Tower

“Eıthne – daughter of (Evil Eye) Balor and maternal grandmother of Fıonn Mac Cumhaıll, Eıthne was imprisoned in a glass tower on Tory Island because of a prophecy that a child of hers would grow to defeat Balor in battle. Despite Eıthne’s imprisonment the prophecy was fulfilled.” This Eıthne is in the foyer of the “house” (tower block) that bears her name: Teach Eıthne in the New Lodge. 

Le buíochas do Mícheál Ó D as an ıontráıl.

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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
X07136 X07137 [X07138] painted by DD and ML Creating common ground green spaces and sustainable communities programme lottery funded

The Staff Are Social Distancing

Businesses across the north (and across the world) struggle to function during the coronavirus pandemic with measures such as limiting the number of customers on site, shifting to kerb-side pick-up, frequent sanitising of surfaces, requiring the wearing of masks, and maintain a physical distance of 6 feet from customers. This images from ‘USA Hand Car Wash & Valet’ in Larne, describes the measures being taken: “Staff are social distancing. Wash & dry only. Door sills not dried to avoid contact. No contact payments. Money to be left on passenger seat. Thank you for your co-operation.”

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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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In The Pocket Of Sınn Féın

The Sınn Féın logo takes the place of the PSNI service badge (which already contains a harp and a shamrock) on the cap of a PSNI officer. “Police Service Of Northern Ireland – destroying the loyalist community since 4th nov. 2001. In the pocket of Sinn Fein [sic]”. 

For the board below, see Graduated Response; for the hooded UVF gunman, see Progression Requires Inclusion.

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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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Pray For Us

A home-made sign on cardboard “NHS – stay safe” has been attached to the mural to IRA volunteers Bobby McCrudden, Mundo O’Rawe, and Pearse Jordan, and the wall below it painted with the message “Stay home – Protect the NHS – Save lives”.

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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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From Laundry To Laboratory

Here are selection of pandemic-related images, many expressing support for the NHS, from Belfast, that were not the subject of individual posts. The first and last of these are from CNR west Belfast (“God bless our NHS” is outside St Paul’s in Cavendish St and the tarp below Charlie Hughes is from the RNU) while the hand-made sheet is in PUL west Belfast (Denmark St) – an indication of the cross-community support for health-care and other “key” workers. The graffiti (“Coronavirus kings”) is on the Dublin Road.

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X07017 X07018 X07019 X07022 [X07023] X07064 [X07066] X07067 X07081 Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
X07089 [X07090] Copyright © 2020 Extramural Activity

The Dead Cannot Cry Out For Justice

Photographs of a dozen atrocities are included on the right of this Derwent Street mural, ranging in time from the 1970 gun-battle around the nearby St Matthew’s church in 1970, in which Jimmy McCurrie and Bobby Neill were killed, to the October 1993 IRA bombing of Frizzell’s fish shop on the Shankill Road, in which Leanne Murray (shown on the left) was one of ten people, two of them children, to die. The others incidents portrayed are Bloody Friday, Darkley, Coleraine, Abercorn, Balmoral, Claudy, La Mon, Kingsmill, and Teebane. 

This new computer-generated mural replaces the painted East Belfast Remembers, which had peeled away to a great extent.

“The slaughter of the innocent by the blood soaked hands of Sinn Fein/IRA never to be forgotten. The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. Is this the equality Sinn Fein/IRA asks for? No economic targets, no legitimate targets, no enquiries, no truth, no justice. Hold dear the memory of all the innocents murdered in our country in support of the Sinn Fein electorate. This memory extends to those not mentioned here who were murdered going about their daily lives at work, at prayer and in remembrance. Nothing was sacred in the futile question for a united Ireland.”

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A Soldier Of The Great War

“The Great War (1914-1918) 36th (Ulster) Division. This memorial is dedicated to the memory of those who fell in the Great War. May their names be held in honour and their sacrifice be remembered with pride.” Next to to the UVF Flute Band 50th anniversary mural and the Singer Sergeant painting (Observe The Sons Of Ulster).

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Her Old Tradition Of Nationhood

“Saoradh salute the men and women of violence,” namely the signatories to the 1916 Proclamation, the women of the 1970s IRA, and modern “dissidents” with home-made weapons.

The plaque on the left is to the IRA’s Pearse Jordan, next to the centenary celebration of the Proclamation, Ag Fíorú Na Poblachta. The board was been moved to this Falls Road location from Ardoyne; it replaces an anti-RUC/PSNI mural.

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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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