A mural of HMS Belfast “Built in Belfast” being launched on March 17, 1938, next to a fake storefront for “B&M Electricals”, with a Billy Graham hoarding above: “What if you got everything you wanted and it wasn’t enough?”, echoing the mural’s Latin inscription, the motto of Belfast city: What shall we give in return for so much?
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03357 psalm 116:12
Here is another mural, this time in west Belfast, in the campaign demanding a response to a shortage in low-income housing. For more, see previously, Equality Can’t Wait.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03496 northumberland st
At the bottom of Divis tower: a wheel of hands from children of different races exhorts residents to overlook differences in skin-tone (“one race, one love, one world”) while the letterbox has been repainted green instead of red.
For the board without obstruction, see M08774
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03460 divis st west belfast area project divis youth belfast city council
A shortage in low-income housing is highlighted in the #buildhomesnow campaign which has put up lots of small boards (such as the one in the image below, on Divis Street) and the mural shown above, which is in the New Lodge. The site of the old Mackie’s factory is one particular location the campaign says could be redeveloped. (See articles from BMG and Participation & Practice Of Rights.)
For another shot of the mural on the right, see The Great Hunger and the Visual History page on The Great Hunger.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03486 X03459 new lodge rd
The Northern Ireland football team will be taking part in Euro 2016, which runs from June 10th to July 10th and so includes the centenary of the Battle Of The Somme on July 1st. You can pick up shirts for both events in this Shankill Road store.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The main part of a Red Hand Commando mural was replaced recently with a board commemorating the action and deaths of the British Army’s 36th (Ulster) Division in World War I’s Battle Of The Somme, of which Captain Wilfrid Spender wrote, “I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday, the 1st July, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world. My pen cannot describe adequately the hundreds of heroic acts that I witnessed … The Ulster Volunteer Force, from which the division was made, has won a name which equals any in history.”
As shown in the three additional images, part of the old mural (and its plaques) remains on the right, “In memory of all loyalists who gave their lives in defence of Ulster – Lest we forget.”
For images of the launch (on 2016-03-08) see Belfast Live.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03431 X03430 X03429 X03428 newtownards rd your king and country need you enlist now HQ staff supreme sacrifice UVF C company john shakey wallace glen whispering shaw sam ferguson noel baker george taggart jim jonty johnstone billy bingham darren sessions
“Since 455 AD” is the claim of this historical board at the bottom of the modern Shankill Road, 455 being the date of a church of St. Patrick (which was taken over by the Church of Ireland in the plantation and eventually became St. Matthew’s). Whether this makes it older than Belfast depends on how one determines that a place was occupied. The were settlements in the area during the Bronze Age, though the village of Belfast (at the junction of the Lagan and the Farset) might date only to the 600s. For Belfast, see Tours In Ulster (at archive.org) and the WP page on the History of Belfast. Shankill: Newsletter | WP | PlacenamesNI
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03426 X03427 the parish of belfast was originally called signifies old church seanchill crown linen industrial
Stanislaw Sosabowski — who appears in the apex of this new mural in east Belfast — survived the first World War (fighting for Austria-Hungary), the occupation of Poland in 1939, and escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp before crossing Europe and taking command, in Britain, of the 1st Polish Paras. The unit fought in Operation Market Garden at the Battle Of Arnhem. (WP | Polish Heritage Society for a booklet of text and images)
His memoirs have been published as Freely I Served and interviews about his service were collected for a film called A Debt Of Dishonour (youtube) – the title comes from the fact that Sosabowski was blamed for the failure of the Operation, perhaps as a bargaining tactic in negotiations between Britain, Russia, and Poland.
Across the middle of the mural are airmen from the 303 Polish Squadron, which was celebrated in a Shankill mural last year: Love Demands Sacrifice. In the foreground is a modern British paratrooper in field gear.
For images of the launch last week, see WWIIPolesNI.
See a recent post at (the blog) We In Coming Days May Be for a report on the East Belfast electoral constituency. Here is a report on Polish Residents In Belfast from the Belfast Interface Project. Attacks on Poles in east Belfast reached a peak in the first few months of 2014; see previously Romanian Housebreakers Beware and e.g. this Telegraph article. See also: Multiculturalism Is Genocide | Never Actually Existed | Belfast You’re Melting My Head
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03420 X03418 X03419 Dee Craig cichociemni silent unseen first polish independent parachute brigade ballymac emma pengelly sammy douglas
A lily and written ‘salute’ have been added to the Fıanna Éıreann wall at the top of Berwick Road/Paráıd An Ardghleanna for the centenary of the Easter Rising: “1916 – 2016 – We salute the memory of those who have given their lives in the cause of Irish freedom.”
For the plaque and the tarp to the right (both of which commemorate four local teenagers), see Purity In Our Hearts.
In the left-hand corner is an RNU sunburst in green, white, and orange.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Two competing posters for two competing dates for two (competing?) Easter Rising parades: the People’s Parade (above) was held today, April 24th, the date of the Rising in 1916; the other was held on this year’s Easter Sunday, March 27th, as the parade is annually held on Easter Sunday.
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X03384 X03385 beechmount ave glen rd easter parade 1916 2016 assemble divis tower 11.30 am parade leaves 12.00 pm sharp speaker gerry adams TD honour ireland’s patriot dead wear an easter lily cumann uaigheann na laochra gael national graves assocition easter commemoration committee belfast leaving barrack street for milltown at 12 noon
Extramural Activity 