Some Gave All

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“All gave some; some gave all.” During its twenty-two years of operation, 197 UDR soldiers were killed. The scroll on the left gives the dates of the regiment’s operation: 1970 (April 1) was the year it replaced the Special Constabulary, and 1992 (May 31) was the year seven of the nine battalions were amalgamated with the Royal Irish Rangers’ two battalions to form the (modern) Royal Irish Regiment (WP) – the piper in the top right is carrying a flag of the Royal Irish Regiment.

The inscription on the plaque reads: “Ulster Defence Regiment mural, dedicated on the 19th March 2016 by Chairman Roy Burton, Carrickfergus Glasgow Rangers Supporters Club [and] Chairman Stephen Weir, Carrickfergus Ulster Defence Regiment Association CGC. Lest we forget.”

The mural is at the Carrickfergus Rangers Supporters Club (Fb). Also from the Club: a gallery of Rangers’ Managers in We Welcome The Chase | commemorative murals to the 36th Division in A Name That Equals Any In History and the three Scottish soldiers in Highland Fusiliers | various others from the laneway and courtyard in We Don’t Do Walking Away, and from inside and from the side patio in The Rangers That I Love.

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Behold, The Dwelling Place Of God Is With Man

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“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” (Revelations 21:4)

In addition to the image of a tear being wiped away there is a burning heart with the words “In the name of love” and panels reading “faith”, “hope”, and “forgiveness”. And also “Team Syracuse, NY, USA 2004”.

Across the street from St Andrew’s church in Forthriver (on the right of the widest image).

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Maximum Penalty

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A fine of 500 pounds and eternal damnation. Belfast City Council first made various Belfast street “alcohol-free” areas in 2007. A full list of streets can be found in this 2012 pdf. The placard shown in the image above is on the Falls Road, outside the Royal. The grounds of the hospital are also included in the list of areas. About 50 people a year receive a summons (2016 minutes). How many of us, annually, are refused entry at the pearly gates is unknown.

In a similar style, from 2014: Ye Must Be Born Again.

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Angry Birds

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Dundela “ultras” have been told they are not welcome at the team’s future games after “unsavoury chanting” at the NI Championship match against local rivals H&W Welders – “the most cataclysmic derby match in world football” (BelTel).

Thirteen more soccer-related stickers are below, including [Glasgow] Rangers Action Force.

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X14544 Joe Gormley Cliftonville He hates the Linfield
X12617 Bangor Maniacs Sankt Gallen
X14184 Helsinborg X14186 Rangers X14187 Bristol Rovers
X14188 Rangers Action Force

Saoırse Don Phalaıstín

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“Saoırse don Phalaıstín [freedom for Palestine]/فلسطين حرة [free Palestine]” and “Ireland stands with Palestine/ايرلندا تقف مع فلسطين” – CYM [Connolly Youth Movement (web)] sticker with a mash-up of the Palestinian and Irish flags and a key that represents the keys that about 700,000 Palestinian householders took with them when they fled their homes in the Nakba of 1948.

See previously: 105 Years Of Balfour | His Land, His Legs, His Life.

Bridge Street, Belfast

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DUP Sellout

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TUV (Traditional Unionist Voice) has put up placards attacking the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) – including outside the office of DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson – in response to the possibility that the DUP might re-enter Stormont – which has been defunct now for two years – and implement the NI Protocol (BBC | BelTel).

It hasn’t happened yet, but a combination of public dissatisfaction concerning inaction over strikes by transport workers on December 22 and a general strike planned for January 18 (ITv)) and a financial package for pay awards are keeping the pressure on (Shropshire Star).

For the Orange symbols above, see Your Kingdom Will Endure Forever; for Psalm 95 see We Are The People; for the Lamentations, see אי כניעה (“No surrender” in Hebrew).

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This Is Not My Beautiful Art

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The Clements coffee shops in Belfast city centre closed in October, leaving only the two at Queen’s and UUJ (BelTel).

The abandonment of the Rosemary Street shop provides a space for art (see Visual History 11 on the rise of street art); replacing the Clements signage there is a “temp sign”: “And you may ask yourself, “Where is my beautiful signage[?]””.

Is this a plea for the return of Clements – a local chain – or investment in the city centre and a new business? Or perhaps it is meant ironically, as a protest against capitalism – the line is a modification of a lyric from the Talking Heads song ‘Once In A Lifetime’ (Stop Making Sense | Remain In Light), which describes a moment of awakening for the middle-aged and middle-classed: “How did I get here?”

On the permanently-closed shutters is a different kind of beautiful signage, a MOSCO throw-up.

See also: Crosseyed And Painless.

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Slouch

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Please get in touch if you know the artist of this three-eyed doorway denizen in Montgomery Street, Belfast.

Another doorway lurker: Dangerous Dave in Kent Street.

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Diversity

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“Diversity is shit” – small stencil in Baltic Avenue, north Belfast, one street away from Building An Ireland Of Equals.

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How Many Loved Your Moments Of Glad Grace

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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.

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