Lest We Forget

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2013-02-27 EmersonSt+

A mural in Emerson Street, Londonderry, featuring UFF/UDA volunteer Cecil McKnight and additionally naming Lindsay Mooney, Ray Smallwoods, Gary Lynch, Ben Redfern, and William Campbell. McKnight is shown standing in front of a mural in the adjacent Bond’s place circa 1990 (facing the Trooper mural). The Londonderry crest (left of centre, over McKnight’s right shoulder,) is featured in the mural in Vita, Veritas, Victoria.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Proud, Defiant, Welcoming

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2013-03-19 WelcomeShankill+

“Welcome To The Shankill Road. We are Proud, Defiant, Welcoming” with images of Belfast in the blitz, the Orange Order and bonfires on July 12th, boxing and soccer, and contemporary murals in the local area. The mural is above the security gates on Northumberland Street.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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John Hume & Friends

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2013-03-09 HumeAndFriends+

“A Tribute to John Hume” by the Bogside Artists. Nobel peace prize-winners John Hume (1988), Martin Luther King, Jr (1964), Nelson Mandela (1993), (the Derry bridge,) and Mother Teresa (1979).

Hume was awarded the prize jointly with David Trimble, and Mandela with F. W. de Clerk. The 94 year-old Mandela is currently (April 2013) in hospital with pneumonia.

Rossville Street and the rear of Glenfada Park, Bogside, Derry/Doıre.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Stevie McCrea

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Red Hand Commando volunteer Stevie McCrea was sentenced to 16 years for the murder of James Kerr in 1972 (Behind The Mask) and was subsequently “murdered by the enemies of Ulster” on February 18th, 1989 in an IPLO attack on the Orange Cross (see M00560 | WP).

“For he shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary him nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him.”

McCrea is included on murals in south Belfast’s Frenchpark Street and Broadway (dating back to at least 1993).

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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A Man’s Home Is His Stadium

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2013-02-24 IbroxHouse+

A house in Shankill Parade sports an “Ibrox Stadium G51 – Rangers Football Club” plate over the door. (G51 is the postcode for Glasgow and the surrounding area.)

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Where Youth And Laughter Go

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2013-03-13 TrevorKing+

Mural in Disraeli Street to Trevor King, to the left of the old Brian Robinson mural and two gables to the right of the new Brian Robinson mural. Having been shot by the INLA and paralysed from the neck down, King took the decision to remove his own life-support (WP).

The words on the left are from Suicide In The Trenches by WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon:

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads pass by
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go

The poem refers to a soldier whose naturally cheerful disposition has been overwhelmed by the horrors of war.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01014 lt. col. trevor king y.c.v. for gold and ulster u.v.f. 1912 1st belfast battaltion ‘b’ company; in proud and loving memory of james ulster volunteer force died 9th july 1994 at the going down of the sun and in the morning we shall remember 14th battalion royal irish rifles somme ypres arras thiepval young citizen volunteers st, quentin grandcourt messines fricourt

Bridge Street

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2013-02-25 PortadownBridge+

New union flags fly on Bridge Street as it crosses the river Bann in Portadown, looking towards the northeast.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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33 Lecky Road

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2013-03-07 FreeDerry+

“You are now entering Free Derry” – Free Derry Corner with The Petrol Bomber and Bernadette murals in the background.

For a Visual History of the gable, see Free Derry Corner.

(A copy (in Belfast) of one of the flyers on the side of the wall in the first image above can be seen in End Impunity.)

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Food & Drink

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2013-03-08 GodfatherGuinness+

Here are two commercial murals from the northwest.

First (above) is a mural outside The Don bar in London-/Derry, which reads “Guinness: Good stout, no strings attached.” (The previous version had a pint being held out to the Don, with the words “Guinness: An offer you can’t refuse”.)

Second (below) is a fish and chip shop called Skippers in Dún Geımhın/Dungiven.

2013-02-05 DungivenSkippers+

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Parallel Worlds

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2013-02-19 ParallelWorlds+

Following on from the crannóg excavations, we might say that we walk around on top of the past, layer upon layer. Here, however, the living people walk around below those that are frozen in time.

North Street, Belfast/Béal Feırste.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00969 though newly christened smithfield and union has existed for generations its identity and its existence has never been in question giving it a name gives it a heart celebrates the individual the different the separate the idiosyncratic and the eclectic old belfast new vision