In a throw-back to earlier times (the RUC changed to the PSNI in 2001), a volunteer armed with a Kalashnikov greets visitors to the area: “Welcome to the Bogside. IRA. RUC beware.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03585 barrack st
“Free Tony Taylor”, “End internment” – identical to the mural in Ardoyne, though without the “Cogús”. On the RNU “notice-board” on Northumberland Street.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04889
“Cú Chulaınn” is Irish for “Culann’s Hound” after the boy Setanta killed the smith’s hound and promised to take its place until another one was raised. In one version of the legend, Setanta kills the original hound by driving a slıotar (hurley ball) down its throat – hence the hero is shown here holding a camán (hurley stick) rather than a sword. In the original picture on which this mural is based, the hero is not Cú Chulaınn but Jim Fitzpatrick’s vision of Nuada Silverarm and he carries a sword.
On the right hand side, Tuan the hawk/eagle/sea-raven bears witness to all of Irish history.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03632 central drive
Here are three images of a new mural in the Creggan area of Derry preaching continued “Resistance!” on account of the “unfinished business” of raising the Irish Tricolour and trampling on Britain’s Union Flag and the “unfinished revolution” of 1916’s Easter Rising (reproducing a postcard of the era).
For the modern-day figure on the left, who is wielding a home-made rocket-launcher used in a 2014 attack on police, see 2015’s Resistance board in Ardoyne.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03574 X03573 X03610 central drive
“Education is our passport to the future. Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” This ‘parachute cloth’ mural, which promotes education over gangs, joins three UVF murals in Pine Street, Donegall Pass, south Belfast. (For two of those murals, see Defenders Of The Pass | South Belfast UVF 2nd Batt.)
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03518 X03517 X03516 X03520 dee craig
UVF 3rd Battalion [East Antrim? North Belfast?] board in Ballyclare to Vol. Robert Heaney and Vol. Brian Heaney. There doesn’t seem to be any information about these two in the usual places – please get in touch if you know anything about them.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03638 erskine pk
Cairns & Co. Ltd were not only “Manufacturing and export chemists” but (according to the 1908 street directory) “Aerated and mineral water manufacturers” with works at “Balmoral Springs, Lisburn Road”.
This post is the fifth and final board on Donegall Road. In order of the wide shot, below, the five are: RIC At Celtic Park | Ruby Murray | Ronnie Adams | Broadway United FC | Cairns & Co. Ltd
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03181 X03186 local workers
Hugh Rooney on the blanket in 1981 is one side of this RNU/Cogús board in the Bogside, Derry. The other shows a helmeted guard beating a prisoner. Here is BBC video of Rooney and Freddie Toal in their cell.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03635 X03636 X02798 rossville st
Black taxi tours of the murals from both sides of the political divide in west Belfast are a well-established part of the tourist industry. (There are also tours of east Belfast.) The various gates in the “peace” line — shown here as closing nightly at 19:69 — are generally open during daylight hours.
Previous ‘gates’ news: See-Through Sectarianism | Belfast Lock-Up.
Bonus image below: benches from the courtyard.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02790 dark horse courtyard
Garlands of poppies, one for each of 38 local men “who gave their lives during the Battle of the Somme 1st July 1916 – 18th Nov 1916”, form a circle around a photograph of “Ballyclare Main Streeet 18th September 1914” as the men go off to war. For information about 17 of the men, see this Love Ballyclare page.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03642 X03641 charles drive lest we forget south east antrim brigade UDA UFF Eddie Beck and Graeme Baird
Extramural Activity 