printed board/placard – Page 69 – Extramural Activity

Campaign For Truth

2015-09-022024-12-23Extramural Activity1 Comment

The McGurk’s Bar bombing of December, 1971 killed fifteen people – the most in a single incident during the troubles – capping what had already been a bloody year, including the “Ballymurphy Massacre” of July, in which 11 died, and starting another round of killings that would spread into the new year. Campaigners for an inquiry were busy this week in both Dublin and Belfast (Irish News).

The first nine panels of the ‘murdered’ follow to the right of the McGurk’s Bar board, presented here three-at-a-time. Note that the ninth panel (with Terry Enright in the top left) was previously the 11th panel; it is not clear why it has been moved left.

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“At 8:47 pm on Saturday 4th December 1971, a no-warning bomb, planted by British terrorists, exploded on the doorstep of family-run McGurk’s Bar. Fifteen innocent men, women and children perished. Those who were not crushed or slowly asphyxiated by masonry where horrifically burned to death when shattered gas mains burst into flames beneath the rubble. Nearly the same again were dragged from the debris alive. In the aftermath of the atrocity, the British and Unionist Governments, RUC police force and British military disseminated disinformation that the bomb was in-transit and that the civilians guilty by association, if not complicit in this act of terrorism. This is despite a mountain of forensic evidence including a witness statement that saw the bomb being planted and lit before the British terrorists escaped into the night. From the moment the bomb exploded and for 40 years since, the families and friends of those murdered have campaigned constitutionally and with great dignity to clear the names of their lived ones. It is a Campaign for Truth that continues to this day. Join us at themcgurksbarmassacre.com” “

Ulster Is Not For Sale

2015-08-292024-12-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Quiz: The UDA are called “Wombles” because they resemble the stop-motion characters of the BBC children’s show in (a) their fur-lined parkas, (b) their parading, or (c) their ability to acquire anything? You can find all three explanations on-line. Originally the name seems to have been a derogatory one, used by their UVF rivals, but it was adopted by the group itself. A close-up of the text on the right is below.

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X02748 X02747 when our forefather fought and died they led the way that we should go as loyalists united we should stand to send our message across the land that all our enemies would know ulster is not for sale nor will we let it go no surrender quis separabit nelson drive auglish court

King Billy’s On The Fence

2015-08-232024-12-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Cut-out boards in the shapes of the red hand of Ulster (both left and right hands!), the five-pointed orange star (usually purple) of the Williamites, the crown of the British monarch, and King Billy on his steed line the fence along Bute Park in Ballybeen.

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IRPWA Prisoners

2015-08-172024-12-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The IRPWA (tw | Fb) placed the names of prisoners currently held in Maghaberry in the barbed wire above the so-called “international” wall. Barbed wire is the symbol of republican prisoners though this barbed wire is used to protect Andrews Flour. Above, you can see the boards for Harkin, Mellon and McGilloway.

The full list, from left to right: Seamus Kearney, Gerard McManus, Nathan Hastings, Mark McGuigan, Sean Kelly, Barry Concannon, Damien Harkin, Thomas Mellon, Martin McGilloway, Jason Ceulemans, Gavin Coney, Liam O’Donnell, Neil Hegarty, Jon Paul Wooton, Martin Kelly, Colin Duffy, Harry Fitzsimons, Christopher O’Kane, Tarlach MacDhomhnaill, Seamus McLaughlin, Gavin Coyle, Brendan McConville, Kevin Barry Nolan.

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In The Crowd Of Thousands

2015-08-132024-12-23Extramural Activity1 Comment

Memories from the History Girl mural in east Belfast’s Thistle Court. (Close-ups below.)

We used to go to Church Street East Disco … It was brilliant. Dee Street Disco in the Community Centre was good too.
Geary’s and The Tab sold all the electrical goods. The TV rent man came on a Friday. We sometimes didn’t answer the door!
I loved Nabney’s, Burkes and Nellie Stewarts. Dora Burnes was a good wee shop too.
There was a swimming pool in Victoria Park that opened in the summer. It was always freezing though!
I used to buy a bag of broken biscuits and and damaged fruit as a treat, when I went to the cinema.
We used to get our hair cut in Sammy Sanford’s.
The Road was always busy – shops and bars all the way along.
Barlow’s hardware at the Conswater Bridge used to have all the plates and cups outside in crates for you to buy.
I drank in the Con Club. It was great – they didn’t let women in!
I came from Singapore to live here with my husband. He died and I went home, but had to come back to Belfast. I missed it too much … it’s my home now.
My granny had a bathroom. I thought that was great. Our toilet was in the yard …
I worked in the Ropeworks and love it … the craic was great.
I loved Joe Bump’s chippy – the pasties were great.
If you were late for work at the Ropeworks they locked the door and you lost your pay. Hardly anyone was ever late.
My grandpa took me to the shipyard and swung me on a crane in one of the workshops. My mummy was raging when she found out!
We used to play Kick the Tin … there were sometimes 30 of us all playing together …
I loved the smell of Inglis’ Biscuit Factory along the Road.
The was The Vulcan, The Ulster Arms, The Four and Twenty, The Clock Bar and The Armagh House. Hastings, who own all the hotels now, used to own a good lot of the bars on the Road.
I remember seeing a ship being launched in the yard. It was about 1976 and all the ones from Mersey Street School went. I met my daddy in the crowd of thousands.
You got your good shoes in Irvine’s and your gutties in Warwick’s. It’s still there.
My granny kept her milk in a bucket of water because she had no fridge.
I worked in the shipyard – left school on a Friday and started in the Yard on Monday.
Everyone had a net bag made in the Ropeworks. You don’t see them nowadays.
We followed the Glens everywhere, but a home match in the Oval was always the best craic.
All my mummy’s brothers were in the Army or Navy during the War … they all came back.
I remember Stanley Brookes. They cashed your Providence Cheques.
We used to go to the cinema on a Saturday morning for the Kids Club. It was always bunged!!

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X02702 X02703 X02705 X02704 history girl titanic H&W crane ulster fry east belfast thompson graving belfast harbour playground football glentoran orange order lodge hall ymca fire engine ducks bunting trams rope groundwork housing executive belfast city council brookes’ princess picture houses They were proper department stores. Lesley Cherry Art in the eastside

Apprentice Boys

2015-08-112024-12-23Extramural Activity1 Comment

On December 7th, 1688, thirteen apprentice boys grabbed the keys to Derry city and locked the gates against the on-coming Jacobite Redshanks. Their names were William Cairnes, Henry Campsie, John Conningham (also given as Coningham), Alexander Cunningham, William Crookshanks, Samuel Harvy, Samuel Hunt, Alexander Irwin, Robert Morison, Robert Sherrard, Daniel Sherrard, James Spike, James Steward and they each have a small plaque in the Fountain area.

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The Thirtieth Of January 1972

2015-08-102024-12-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Above is a local interpretation of Robert Ballagh’s 1970 rendering of Goya’s The Third Of May 1808 in Glenfada Park, Derry/Doıre, site of four deaths on Bloody Sunday, 1972.

The original commemorates Spanish resistance to the forces of Napoleon (WP). For this Derry version, features from the city’s skyline – the Guildhall, St. Columb’s Cathedral, and an intact Governor Walker column – have replaced the original’s outline of Madrid, as well as an insignia of the Paras on the arm of a soldier.

For Ballagh’s original (“1970”) version and a description and video of the launch see bloodysundaymarch.org. Here is an Eamonn McCann lecture on the political history of the Goya painting. Until recently, the piece above was adjacent to a version of Picasso’s Guernica.

The High Meadow

2015-08-092024-12-23Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

As the map below shows, the area between the Shankill and the Falls roads in 1789 was largely undeveloped and perhaps titles such as “Cluain Ard” (“Clonard”) were descriptions as well as names. The ‘White Linen Hall’ – on the site of the current City Hall – had been completed the year before. St. Mary’s was the first Catholic church in Belfast. Wikipedia reports that on the day of its first mass, May 30th, 1784, “the mostly Presbyterian 1st Belfast Volunteer Company paraded to the chapel yard and gave the parish priest a guard of honour, with many of the Protestants of Belfast also present and sharing the event”. (WP) The map also shows a series of ponds connected to the nearby Flush. A close-up of the board is below.