Clonard Remembers

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Is cuimhin linn.” Last week saw a series of events, organised by the Belfast 1969 Pogroms Commemoration Committee, in Clonard, Falls, and Ardoyne, including a photographic exhibition, documentary screenings, panel discussions, a play, a mass, and murals (Irish News), including The Pogrom Of August 1969 and the one above, in Bombay Street, which used to run between the Shankill and Falls but after the riots and burnings of August 1969 was split in two by a so-called “peace” line (see the wide shot, below).

“These are terrible days … but some good has already come from these attacks on our communities. You have young people and elderly people all closely knit together and that is a grand thing. We must not allow hatred to spring up in our hearts. For what we are aiming for now is justice. We demand justice. We are not begging for it – we are demanding it. It is our right and we will keep on demanding it until we get it. We don’t ask for anything more – just a fair deal … that we will soon have a community where everybody, irrespective of religious belief or irrespective of political ideology will be able to lead a normal life and will not be unjustly discriminated against.” – Fr Patrick Egan, sermon in Clonard Monastery, August 1969 (youtube).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06748 Xo6749 X06750 X06746 [X06747] [X06751]

Bella’s Bench

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“In loving memory of Isobel Bamford 18.09.1954 – 03.02.2014 from family and friends in Kirkintillock LOL 206, KRSC [Kirkintillock Rangers Supporters Club], City of Glasgow ABOD and POTNFB [Pride Of The North Flute Band].” Kirkintillock is eight miles outside Glasgow, Scotland. This memorial bench to Bella Bamford is in the pocket park just above the King William III mural on Sandy Row.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06639

Kill Your Speed

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A message from the students at Glenwood Primary School: “Kill your speed, not a child. Look at the road, not your phone.” With support from the Greater Shankill A[ction for] C[omunity] T[ransformation] Initiative (Fb). Although these are boards, they have been printed to look as though they are on brick. BelfastLive has a gallery of images from the 2016 launch. Shankill Road at the top of Lanark Way.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05998

Your Inner Animal

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Humans are animals and quizzes for determining precisely which animal you might be have been on the internet since forever; even the World Wildlife Fund has one. Work by Friz (tw | web | ig) for Hit The North 2019, in Kent Street, Belfast.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06604

Make Israel Great Again

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

US president Donald Trump, yesterday quoted (approvingly, in a tweet) a conservative radio host claiming that Israelis think of him “like he’s the King of Israel” and “the second coming of God”. He went on, later in the afternoon, to describe himself to reporters as ‘the chosen one’ (video at BBC) for imposing tariffs on Chinese goods. He said that American Jews who vote for Democrats are “disloyal” (BBC) to Israel; he later clarified (NYTimes). 80% of Jewish Americans voted for Democrats.

The Trump flag flies over Sandy Row, next to the other ‘Prince Of Orange’.

Previously: Your Wall, Your Border | Imagine There’s No Countries

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06763 

We Have Hit Five

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The Westrock bungalows were aluminium prefab houses built in 1949 during the post-war housing shortage next to Springhill and Ballymurphy. British troops fired on the area from the high position of Corry’s timber yard in the summer of 1972; their bullets could go through the walls. Five people were shot dead, including a priest. The plaques shown are new additions to the memorial garden in Westrock Drive.

“On the evening of July 9th 1972 British marksmen mounted an unprovoked and sustained attack on this community. Among the snipers[‘] victims lay five dead. Gunned down during efforts to bring aid an succour to the wounded. Still waiting for justice to their memory and for freedom of the truth.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06560

The Loyal 36th

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“Off to France our boys were sent. All gave some, some gave all – In memory of the loyal 36th.” The first phrase might come from the Rangers’ song ‘We’re Coming Down The Road‘. The second phrase dates not to WWI but the Korean War in the 1950s (Reference). Kitchener Drive, the Village.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Extramural Activity
X06729 X06728 kitchener drive

The Pogrom Of August 1969

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This August marks the 50th anniversary of what are euphemistically called “The Troubles”. The Battle Of The Bogside (Derry) began on August 12th; in Belfast, fighting began on the night of August 14th and before dawn three people in the Divis Street area were dead: Protestant Herbert Roy and Catholics Patrick Rooney and Hugh McCabe, both shot in the Divis flats complex by the RUC’s Shorland armoured cars. (Two other Catholics were killed in rioting in Ardoyne.) This new board is on Divis tower, next to the plaque commemorating Rooney and McCabe.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06744 X06745 “Ar eagla go ndéanfadh muıd dearmad” [for fear we would forget/lest we forget] “erected by the falls commemoration committee” ‘time for truth” “malone road fiddles”  “barricades stay until demands are met”

Sharing Space

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

A trio of youth-focused pieces in the “Albertbridge Community Garden” by (presumably) Blaze FX.

X05315 2014- Sharing Space+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2018/2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05989 X05990 X05991 X02457 X05315

The Northern Crusades

Extramural Activity1 Comment

Crusaders – off to a perfect start of two wins – travel the mile and a half across north Belfast to Solitude to  play Cliftonville at 3 this afternoon in the north Belfast derby. Today’s images are of the mural outside Seaview and the scene from the run-up to the team’s Irish Cup win over Ballinamallard (BBC-NI). In meetings between Crusaders and Cliftonville, Crusaders lead 151 wins to 84 (WP).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2019 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X06618 X06619