The ‘cross and crown’ is the emblem of the Royal Black Institution, an institution two years younger than the Orange Order; a list of local preceptories in District 6 (Ballyclare) is given in the first image below. To the left (in the image above) is the Square And Compasses, the symbol of the Freemasons. This is a newer arch than seen previously in 2009.
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The harp as a symbol of Ireland dates back to the 1500’s, with the ‘winged maiden’ version current by the late 1700s. The United Irishmen replaced the crown typically added above it (used, for example, by the Royal Irish Rifles) with a cap of freedom (for another image see the 2000 Bobby Sands mural). The Irish Republican National Congress (web) is a 2014 group with the goal of a united Ireland.
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Based on the ‘lambda’ symbol on the right (ancient Greek “L” standing for “Lakedaimon”), ‘Identity Movement Ireland’ appears to be ‘Generation Identity Ireland’ (Fb), which appears to be (associated with) Identity Ireland (web | Fb), a relatively new (July 2015) nationalist party in favor of EU withdrawal and increased (Muslim) immigration control. It has joined with similar organisations in fifteen other European countries who subscribe to PEGIDA – Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West). The stencil above has appeared on the Cavehill Road, Belfast.
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You can see (or imagine) all of east Belfast with the help of the guide-post in the middle of Lisvannon Community Garden: Stormont to the east, factories to the south-west, and Harland & Wolff to the north-west.
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Here is another set of four portraits of Robert Bennett, Joe Long, James Cordner, and Robert “Squeak” Seymour, all members of the UVF killed in the 1970s (Bennet, Long, Cordner) and 1980s (Seymour).
Inverary Street, east Belfast.
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King Billy’s sword is tipped in blood, and he rides below a shamrock, rose, and thistle, uniting the kingdoms. Ballyclare Orange Hall is named after Hugh McCalmont, a major-general in the British Army Ulster Unionist MP for North Antrim in 1895 (and East Antrim in 1918?). His Whiteabbey house was burned down by suffragettes in 1914 because it was used as a training ground by the UVF of the anti-franchise Carson.
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The old Bank Street (looking towards St Mary’s, Chapel Lane) is recreated in a new mural outside Manny’s fish and chips, though with some liberties taken. (Here is the street in 1915 and in 1924.) Kelly’s Cellars, for example, is where Bittles Bar is shown; Bittles Bar was the flatiron building on Victoria Street, recently sold.
Landmarks such as City Hall, the Titanic Centre, the H&W cranes, and An Chultúrlann are included. On the right side of the mural (see the wide shot, below) three murals are included: the one outside Madden’s Bar, the one on the West Belfast Taxi terminal and the Madonna And Child mural at the bottom of Divis that hasn’t existed since about 2000.
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IRA volunteer Francis Liggett was shot dead by the British Army during an attempted armed robbery at Royal Victoria Hospital, Falls Road in 1973 (Sutton) while local Sinn Féin member Paddy Brady was shot by the UFF while at work in 1984 (Sutton | An Phoblacht). They are commemorated in the St James memorial garden with the board shown above, featuring two verses from Bobby Sands’s poem Weeping Winds: Oh, Whispering [Whistling, in the original] winds why do you weep/When roaming free you are,
Oh! Is it that your poor heart’s broke/And scattered off afar?
Or is it that you bear the cries/Of people born unfree,
Who like your way have no control/Or sovereign destiny?
Oh! Lonely winds that stalk [walk] the night/To haunt the sinner’s soul/
Pray pity me a wretched lad/Who never will grow old.
Pray pity those who lie in pain/The bondsman and the slave
And whisper sweet the breath of God/Upon my humble grave.
The board is similar in design to the painted one it replaces, except that Éire was at the centre rather than the “SF” logo.
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Strandtown and District Unionist Club used to be at 4 Belmont Road (Strandtown Hall) and it erected this memorial to local casualties in the Great War in Portland stone on the adjacent wall,(Lord Belmont in NI) which is now part of a Christian Fellowship church. “Hereon are recorded the names of those men and women who in serving voluntarily their King and country, laid down their lives. Pass not this stone sorrow but in pride and may you live as nobly as they died.” The building currently houses Bennett’s On Belmont, a UUP headquarters, and the Victoria Ulster Unionist Association upstairs.
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A mosque rises between Samson and Goliath, the Harland & Wolff cranes, while in the lower third, people of different races and nationalities share the same streets of terraced housing.
Here are pictures of the launch on August 21st, part of the Active Communities Network‘s ‘Walk The Walls‘ event.
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Extramural Activity 