A mural commemorating the Battle of the Somme on the locally-named “Passchendaele Court” (a.k.a. Conway Walk, off Conway St.). See also Thiepval Street. Replaces the Tombo Kinner mural. With support from the Govan Somme Association, Grapes Bar, Glasgow.
The images below of the previous mural blacked out are from September, 2011. For the mural in its prime, see M05506.
A plaque in the old Shankill graveyard. “Watch-House: This wall once formed part of a small building known as the “Watch-House” which was erected about the year 1830 by Mr. William Sayers and Mr. Israel Milliken, following the Burke and Hare sensation in Edinburgh. In it, relatives of the newly-buried kept watch to protect their dead from the unwelcome attention of body-snatchers who disinterred corpes [corpses] and sold them for medical research, or in the hope of securing articles of value which might have been buried with them.”
The nameplate on the lower corner of Northland Street now reads “Thiepval Street” and the Thiepval board above adorns the end wall (replacing an earlier mural to UVF A Company 5th platoon; the stone shown below, although not present in 2006, perhaps belongs to the era of the previous mural). On the other side of Conway Street is/was North Howard Walk where a plate now reads “Passchendaele Court“. It’s not clear whether the names have been changed officially or not. The names are unofficial (as of November 15th, 2012). In the New Lodge earlier this year (April-May, 2012), Fishers Court became McGurk’s Way (U.tv | BBC-NI).
All of these images are of different parts of the Somme memorial next to the Shankill graveyard. There is an opening in the graveyard boundary wall which leads into the Somme memorial garden. The Mountainview Tavern, which featured several times during the troubles, can be seen behind the memorial, as well as the spire of St. Matthew’s Church.
oh you who sleep in flanders fields sleep sweet to rise anew we caught the torch you threw and holding high we keep the faith with all who died, we cherish too the poppy red that grows on fields were valour led, it seems to signal to the skies that blood of heroes never dies but lends a lustre to the red of the flower that blooms above the dead in flanders fields, and now the torch and poppy red we wear in honour of our dead fear not that ye have died for naught we’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought in flanders fields carson inspects local volunteers at fernhill house glencairn 36th ulster division, ulster volunteer force, the 2nd west belfast battalion
From the old Shankill Graveyard. The statue of Queen Victoria was carved by John Cassidy from Slane, Co. Meath in 1897 to mark Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee – she was 78 years of age at the time. She is depicted wearing Nottingham lace. Victoria was Queen Of Ireland 1837 – 1901 and Empress of India 1876 – 1901.
Wide shot below, with the antenna on Tennent St. police station in view …
An Ulster-Scots-American president and a Turkish-Northern-Irish kebab shop. On Ainsworth St. and Shankill Rd. Here is a straight-on shot of the mural from 2004.
Extramural Activity 