Politician, Barrister, Ulsterman

Sir Edward Carson, 1854-1935, was born and raised in Dublin, and practiced law there for many years, but he is most famously associated with the Unionist campaign against Home Rule and the creation of “a Protestant province of Ulster” and eventually the six-county state of Northern Ireland. The new mural in today’s post is by Dee Craig in Ballyclare’s Grange Drive.

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We Love The Jobs You Hate

St James-area gang IBA (I’d Buck Anything) imitating the old (1990’s) Mr Muscle ads. It’s not clear what the “jobs” that need doing are … perhaps housebreaking?

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Fight For Your Rights

The UK general election takes place Thursday week (June 8th). Here are two Sınn Féın boards, both at the junction of the Falls and Glen Roads (site of the former Andersonstown police station), the first featuring the image of Michelle O’Neill and exhorting people to “register to vote now!” (Claragh chun vótáıl anoıs) and the second a quote from Gerry Adams’s oration at the graveside of Martin McGuinness: “If you want freedom, go out and take it. Organise. Mobilise. Unite for rights” (Más saoırse atá uaıt, gabh amach agus beır greım uırthı. Eagraıgh, gríosaıgh, troıd ar son do chearta.) A copy of Latuff’s Ireland-Palestine hunger-striker solidarity cartoon (which he also painted as a mural in Northumberland St) has been added to Michelle’s lapel.

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Belfast Exposed

Photograph gallery Belfast Exposed dates back to 1983. Here is an interview with one of the founders, Sean McKernan, about its origins. Today’s images are from the back of the Donegall Street offices, in Warehouse Lane.

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They Gave A Lifetime

Here is another pair of combined UVF memorial stones – from both WWI and the modern conflict. Above, the fallen comrades of 2nd battalion South Belfast are remembered by their fellow officers and volunteers in the Village’s B Company; below, the garden is dedicated to the “glory of God” in memory of the “sons of Ulster” by “all of their comrades in arms who, by divine grace, were spared to testify to their glorious deeds.” (BelTel and Irish News articles on the unplanned inclusion of modern-day UVF.)

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X04162 X04160 frenchpark st how nobly they fight and die in their final moments

It’s OK To Talk

Fifteen football teams from west and north Belfast are involved in a new Suicide Awareness and Mental Health Initiative (SAMHI) in order to combat a recent increase in suicides, including two players from Belfast Celtic (BBC).

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Free Marwan Barghouti

Palestinian leader and secretary-general of Fatah during the 90s, Marwan Barghouti joined the Second Intifada (2000) and was arrested by Israeli forces in 2002 and sentenced to five life sentences for attacks by al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Barghouti laid out the rationale for the current hunger strike of 1,000 prisoners in a New York Times op-ed. He was reportedly caught eating in May.

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X04149 IRPWA havana st solidarity with palestine free the hunger strikers

Reading & Writing

Wild-style from SARE in Garfield Street in the city centre.

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Back To The Polls

Voters go back to the polls for a UK general election on June 8th. Election materials for the Stormont elections are still visible, such as this Gerry Kelly placard in the Sınn Féın offices in Ardoyne, defaced with a Saoradh ‘quislings’ poster, also from the last Stormont election. John Finucane, rather than Kelly, is the Sınn Féın candidate for the general election this time (Irish News).

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