This Lesley Cherry mural in the Village area of Donegall Road shows a female figure sitting on a drum and holding one of the Harland & Wolff cranes in her hand.
Previously by Lesley Cherry: In The Crowd Of Thousands | Nothing About Us | I Am Not Resilient | Women’s Voices Matter | Only In The Movies | Coming Of Age In The Lower Shankill
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Revolution 1916” is an exhibition of uniforms, weapons, medals, and other memorabilia from the 1916 Easter Rising. It will open in Dublin’s Ambassador Theatre on February 27th but before then it some of the items have been on tour, including stops in the Andersonstown Social Club (poster shown above | youtube video) and Gaelscoil Éanna in Glengormley (images). As a juxtaposition, “CIRA” (Continuity IRA) is on the electrical box to the left.
For the murals in the background see M02254 | M05150 | Mac Brádaigh
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here’s “Duality” by emic (Eoin McGinn Fb | Web |Tw) in Belfast city centre – a young child with nose-ring and accompanying bird, mirrored in a prism of yellow light. For another emic bird, see We Borrow The Earth From Our Children.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The years of operation of the UVF in this new Ballyduff mural are given as 1966-1994. The main loyalist paramilitaries began what was to be a lasting ceasefire on 13th of October, 1994. The ceasefire was announced by Gusty Spence, who was the organisation’s original leader in 1966.
“Present peace now, stills our hand, death no longer stalks our land, our weapons are silent, and shall remain, but if needed, we shall rise again.”
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The Green Brigade, founded in 2006, (Web | WP) is an ultra-fanatical supporters club for Scottish football team Celtic. The poster above, which shows a supporter with scarf over the lower part of his face and aiming a slingshot, is in the Clonard area of west Belfast.
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As the sign says, the area of what is now an Iceland supermarket on the Shankill Road was, at the time of World War I, a training ground for the Ulster Volunteers. The sign was erected to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the force, which then became the Ulster Volunteer Force which served in the war. “On the first day of enlistment for the West Belfast UVF, volunteers assembled at Stewart’s Yard in the Shankill Road. They were addressed by Colonel T. E. Hickman, the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton and a senior UVF figure who had become the Recruiting Officer for the whole of Ulster. Joining Hickman were James Craig MP, plus Stewart Blacker Quin, who was the Unionist candidate for West Belfast and the commander of the 1st Battalion West Belfast UVF.” (Richard S. Grayson, Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in First World War, p. 12) “The day following the opening of enlistment for the Division, 360 men assembled at the same yard, where after being presented with a box of cigarettes, they marched to the railway station to board trains for Donard Camp near Newcastle. These men became the corps of the 9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.” (Bygone Days)
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The UFF mural shown above – with a red fist on a yellow six-pointed star, surrounded by a garland – is in the Lincoln Court area of Londonderry.
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Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A Belfast Love Story by Leo Boyd (Tumblr | Belfast Print Workshop and see previously: Big Men Wail Hammers | Oh You Pretty Thing): “I love this city but doesn’t love me back”, says our heroine, standing in front of Belfast City Hall!
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UDA commander John McMichael was also secretary of the New Ulster Political Research Group (NUPRG), a think tank of the UDA/UFF. The group argued for an independent Northern Ireland (based in part on beliefs about a separate Ulster ethnic identity – see the Visual History page on Cú Chulainn) in two documents, 1979’s Beyond the Religious Divide and 1987’s Common Sense (available at CAIN), promoting the philosophy of ‘Ulster nationalism’, depicted here by the free-floating Northern Ireland. McMichael ran unsuccessfully for the Belfast South seat after the murder of Robert Bradford (see To Bathe The Sharp Sword Of My Word In Heaven).
“As John McMichael stated before his untimely death, we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and share the responsibility of maintaining good government. He left us hope.”
Here’s a link to an image (from @conflictNI) of McMichael at the launch of Common Sense in 1987.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The mural on the shutters of Belfast Underground Records (Web | Fb) reproduces the cover of the album London Calling by The Clash. Vinyl records, and, since September 2015, a radio station with live streaming from the booth!
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Extramural Activity 