Here is a 2011 image of a 2005? boxing mural off Ross Road. The lower parts look like they have gone 10 rounds with graffiti artists. In the foreground is a mural featuring local boxers from the Immaculata Amateur Boxing Club (on the nearby Albert Road); in the distant mural, Muhammad Ali.
The graffiti at the Royal (corner of Grosvenor Road) featured previously has drawn a parallel comment (from the CIRA?). Republican participation in the peace process is described as “suic[i]de” as “British rule!” is still intact.
“Strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow.” A “Willowfield community” strong man lifts a barbell of “friends” and “family” as he gets in shape. Below, a “Jesus” tag and a wide shot of both pieces, at the top of London Road.
“Sinn Fein Out” – graffiti on the Ballysillan Road, directed at Catherine Seeley, a (Catholic) teacher at the (Protestant) Boys’ Model, and who recently became a Sinn Féin councillor in Craigavon. Seely has now quit her job. (Newsletter | Tele | BBC-NI). Previously: Our Wee Country (3)
Here are two of the three painted side of a large electrical box in the Highfield estate, adjacent to a new memorial garden. Above is a board commemorating British army service personnel from WWI to the recent/current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the other side of the box, and pictured below, the ‘thumbs up’ soldier is painted. For background on the ‘thumbs up’ image below, see the previous post Help For Heroes.
The board above commemorates Caoımhín Mac Brádaıgh (Kevin Brady) who was one of three people killed in Milltown cemetery by Michael Stone in his attack at the burial of the ‘Gibraltar 3’. This board is in the South Link (originally it was on the Andersonstown Road), a short distance from where Corporals Wood and Howes were killed during Mac Brádaıgh’s own funeral, three days later (1998-03-19).
For information about the photograph on which the image is based, see 25 Years – In Progress.
Besties Barbers stands in the centre of Newtownards and the mural above is on the side wall (in Gibson Lane). It features footballer George Best in Northern Ireland strip and sponsorship by local taxi company, Kare Kabs. The interior of the shop is decorated with more Northern Ireland football heroes.
“She Sat Down So We Could Stand Up”. Rosa Parks was born 101 years ago today, on February 4th, 1913. This board in the New Lodge hails her as as the “mother of the civil rights movement”. It includes images of Parks in old age, a reproduction of a photo of Parks sitting on a bus in Montgomery in 1956, after the Supreme Court ruling which declared segregation on the buses illegal, eleven months after the boycott began, and a Montgomery civil rights march on December 5th, 1955 led by Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King. The title of today’s post is a Parks quote. Someone suggested to her, in an attempt to minimize her actions, that perhaps she had refused to move simply because she was tired, to which she replied, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in”.
The stained-glass window shown above is on the stairs in An Chultúrlann. It was designed in conjunction with the Windsor Women’s group (Ionad Na mBan Windsor) to commemorate the fact that the place was formerly a Presbyterian church (1896-1982 Eaglaıs Preıspitéıreach, Broadway). The broken white lines which form the cross also stand for road markings. The glass also features the sun, a burning bush, a rainbow, and a Celtic shield. Unveiled June 22nd, 2012.