Poppy Trail boards have been added below the 2013 Time Changes board commemorating the sacrifice of the 36th (Ulster) Division – in black-and-white on the left – and the Royal Irish Rifles – in colour on the right.
“The past is behind, learn from it. The present is here, live it. The future is ahead, prepare for it.” 2016 mural and board-cut diamond (which is lit from behind at night) in Lord Street, replacing the old LPA mural which lasted from 1997 to 2015.
The main battles of the 36th (Ulster) Division (“XXXVI”) are listed – Somme, Thiepval, Messines, Ypres, Cambrai, Somme (1918), St. Quintin [St. Quentin], Lys, Courtrai – and those who died are commemorated on this new board. The main board is surrounded by smaller boards, part of the Poppy Trail, bearing the names, ages, addresses, ranks, and units of deceased soldiers. For example: William Lyttle, aged 18, 16 Tenth Street, 9th batt. Royal Irish Rifles, Rifleman 13044.
Update: info board added “Thousands of brave Shankill men marched down our road and off to war, over 1500 of them never returned, with over 150 losing their lives on the 1st day of July 1916.”
“4 the fam”, that is, for the members of TMN: RASER, ANKO, CASP, MASH, BORE, NIKO, CISTO, AKEN, ZEL, RECK, DEX, JEST, from fellow-member NOTA. Replaces the TMN-painted Culture Blight.
A gallery of scenes from IRA bombings has been added around the Bayardo memorial arch, the centre-piece of which are two images from the 2015 Paris bombings (shown above). “IRA – Sinn Fein – ISIS no difference”.
Not a phoenix or a bonfire but a pile of sterling going up in flames, a reference to the recent RHI (“Renewable Heat Incentive” rather than Sinn Féin’s promised “Respect, honesty, integrity”) scandal which was a cause of yesterday’s election. Whether it will make any difference to the electorate will be seen today, as counting gets under way in the 2017 Assembly Elections.
The UK’s vote to leave the EU (“Brexit”) might mean the return of the “hard” border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The board shown above lists the Tories, DUP, TUV, and (west Belfast rivals) People Before Profit as supporters of Brexit. PBP supported the exit on anti-austerity grounds.
Voters go to the polls on March 2nd and among the candidates in East Belfast is Northern Ireland Conservative (web | Fb) Sheila Bodel. The party placard above in Grand Parade suggests that the peace process has been a “fleece process”.