W. B. Yeats’s poem When You Are Old is generally understood to be directed at Maud Gonne, who was born on this day in 1866. Yeats met the actress and activist in 1899, fell in love with her, and proposed marriage four times in the years to follow, each time being rejected. It is as Yeats’s muse — and not for her mysticism or anti-Semitism or Irish nationalism — that she is the subject of this mural in Union Street, Sligo, painted by artist Nick Purdy of Blowdesigns (Fb) in 2018.
“Together building a united community” (“T:BUC” for short) is an Executive-Office strategy (pdf) aiming (among other things) at “good relations” for children and young people. The web page details various programmes that fall under this initiative, including youth camps that bring together children from different religious communities.
The piece shown combines wild-style writing with graphics of landmarks (The Big Fish, Albert clock) and “hello” in various languages, including Irish.
With support from South Belfast Alternatives (web) and Flour Power sandwich shop (web) – “home of the Belfast Melt” – both in Donegall Pass.
The name “Ulster-Scots” refers to the emigrants to North America from Ulster that had previously come from Scotland and the English borders, and most of the Ulster-Scots murals in the 2000s focused on emigration to America and on US Presidents with Scotch-Irish heritage (see the Visual History page of Ulster-Scots murals).
In 2017, a series of boards along York Street focused on industrialists in Northern Ireland with Scottish backgrounds: 13 panels in five posts: one | two | three | four | five. And this new collection of “Ulster-Scots” luminaries (which is 100 paces away) likewise presents figures who are associated with Northern Ireland rather than America. Modern folk such as those portrayed in these new boards presumably have Scottish heritage rather than Scotch-Irish. (The title of this entry – The Scots In Ulster – comes from a Discover Ulster Scots poster about the Scots who came to Ulster in the 1600s, regardless of whether or not they or their descendants later moved to America.)
From left to right, the people shown are as follows. (Links are to previous entries in the Extramural collection.)
Mountcollyer: motorcyclist Rex McCandless, author CS Lewis, physicist John Stewart Bell, song-writer Jimmy Kennedy, medical inventor Frank Pantridge
Going by the streets and places mentioned in these plaques – see the list below – “old Ardoyne” would not have included Balholm Drive, where this gable wall is; Brompton Park and the streets above it – built c. 1935 are renamed c. 1939 (after a 1937 rent strike) – were known as Glenard. (See also Belfast Forum one | two.)
According to an entry on Belfast Forum, Skinny Lizzy’s real name was Elizabeth Gilmore. According to another, Greast Nellie’s chip shop and the Crumlin Star was opposite one another.
left side: Crumlin Star, Peter Toal’s hard wear shop, Beltax [Beltex] mill, Cassidy’s shop, Holy Cross Boys school
top row: Chatham Street Skinny Lizzy shop, Elmfield Street Reid’s shop, Brookfield Street McCafferty shop, Flax Street Greasy Nelly’s, Granny Byer’s shop
second: Oakfield Street, Kerrera Street Skillen’s shop, Hocker Street Rock’s shop, Butler Street Tom’s shop, Top Of The Pad, Dan The Man’s Rockiet[?]
third: The Millie Dam, Crumlin Street Billy O’Hara’s, Herbert Street Davidson’s shop, Fairfield Street Black’s shop, Paddy’s barber shop, McNab’s Chippy, Raynardo’s chippy
fourth: The GAA Tin Hut, The Gap Andy’s shop, Hole In The Knickers, The Unity Club
fifth: Rose Bank mill, Flax Street mill, Toby’s Hall, The Hibbs [Hibs] Club [in Herbert St], Bloody Mary’s Arch
sixth: Brookfield mill, The League AWMC [Ardoyne Working Men’s Club (Fb)], Roy Kane’s shop
The Easter lily and the red star mark this graffiti-art-style slogan in Durrow Park, Derry, as republican-socialist; RSYM = Republican Socialist Youth Movement (Fb), IRSP = Irish Republican Socialist Party (web), AFA = Anti-Fascist Action (Fb)). There is a small “Victory to Hamas” graffito to the right.
For the large Arm Saoırse Náısıúnta Na hÉıreann (INLA) board, see Serious Trouble.
The Israeli flag flies outside the ‘Union Jack Souvenir Shop’ on the Newtownards Road, east Belfast, “world flag suppliers” and “British by birthright”.
Wild-style writers RASK from Drogheda (ig), SNAK from Derry (ig), and SKARE from Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine by way of Warsaw, Poland, (ig) hit the so-called west Belfast “peace” line on Saturday and left their mark.
Israeli bombing of Gaza resumed on Friday, with bombing of southern Gaza and a demand that civilians move even further south, to the border city of Rafah (Al Jazeera). This graffiti and a simple painting of the Palestinian flag are in the Elmfield area of Glengormley, Newtownabbey.
The “put/give it back, thief” imagery that we saw used for the Lough Neagh protest (and much earlier in republican murals) is used on an “Israel, get out of Palestine” sticker on the bollard now outside Cultúrlann McAdam-O’Fiaich that originally came from McAdam’s Soho foundry in Townsend Street. (A sticker in worse condition was also seen in Israel Get Out Of Palestine.)
“Caıth bomaıte ar son na Palaıstíne. Seol ríomhphost chuıg gach ceannaıre polaıtiúıl sa tír. – Caırde Palestine.” [Spend a moment on Palestine’s behalf. Send an e-mail to every political leader in the land. – Friends of Palestine]
“Dorn san aer do na Gaeıl [a fist in the air for the Irish] Rónán Mac Aodha Bhuí 1970-2023”.
Mac Aodha Bhuí joined Ráıdió Na Gaeltachta in the 1990s but was best known for his Rónán Beo@3 programme (which is inscribed on the ring on the first), which began in 2006. He was a passionate advocate for the Irish language. He died this past September after a four-year battle with cancer. (RTÉ | Irish Times | Donegal Daily)
The official launch of the mural will be at 2 p.m. on Friday (December 1st).
Fallswater Street, west Belfast
Update: by the time of the launch a photograph of Mac Aodha Bhuí was added.
Extramural Activity 