Extramural Activity

The Earth Writes Upon The Sky

2022-12-152025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Two Larne trees: above, the tree mosaic at the Town Hall steps created by artist Janet Crymble (see previously Sports We Love), with support from Larne Renovation Regeneration, Larne Trader’s Forum, and Mid & East Antrim Borough Council (NIWorld); below, the “Armada Tree” that is purported to have sprung from a chestnut or chestnut seeds in the pocket of a dead sailor in the Spanish Armada – the tree fell over after 432 years in 2020, a victim of root disease (anglican.org), but is remembered by the board depicting it in Upper Main Street, Larne.

“Local legend has it that when the Spanish Armada was passing these shores in 1588, a sailor was washed up at Ballygally village, no doubt from one of the ships blown off course by gales. Locals were said to have taken the body and buried it in the graveyard of the picturesque St Patrick’s Church at Cairncastle. The ancient tree beside the chuch grew from one of the chestnut seeds that the sailor had in his pocket when he was buried. The tree has been analysed and found to date back to the sixteenth century, adding credence to the story.”

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Death To Informants

2022-12-142025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Republican graffiti in Fahan Street, Derry, adjacent to the Che Guevara Lynch mural. Any specific reference is unknown; in 2019 there was controversy over signs threatening informers in relation to the killing of Lyra McKee (e.g. extra).

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That We May Live In Freedom

2022-12-122025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The old C Batt mural further up Hornbeam Road has long been painted over. It used the same line – “They gave their lives that we may live in freedom” – to remember Wesley Nicholl and Brian Morton. A plaque to Morton is now included on top of the new mural. “Brian Morton (Morty) killed in action 07/07/1997, a true Ulster patriot who gave his life in defence of his country. Feriens tego.” As with republican memorials, “active service” means that Morton was killed by a premature bomb exploding.

Previously on this wall: Queensway Flute Band.

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The Oasis

2022-12-112025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

According to a history of Brown’s Square, the area was known as “the oasis” during WWII on account of its 3 dance-halls and 22 pubs (Religion, Riots And Rebels). As with so much publicly-funded art (though we cannot find any provenance for this art) it depicts Belfast in the “good old days” – that is, before the Troubles, which produced the so-called “peace line” dividing west Belfast.

In this case of Brown’s Square, the area was further desolated in anticipation of a planned ring road (formally to be known as the Belfast Urban Motorway). the plan produced only the subterranean “Westlink” that cut Brown’s Square in half. The images in today’s post are in Townsend Street, (these are from below the security gates; there are others above it). Before the construction of the Westlink, which opened in 1981, Townsend Street was considered the western border, and part of Brown’s Square. John Gilbert’s photographs at the Belfast Archive Project show the area in the mid-seventies, when much of it had been abandoned but prior to construction.

The Boys Brigade are shown parading in front of Townsend Presbyterian which held its last service in September and is being handed over to the Ulster Orchestra (Belfast Media) (see previously On The Other Side for stained glass windows inside the church). The Brown’s Square school was at the junction of Brown’s Square (the street) and Melbourne Street.

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The Rising Place

2022-12-102025-01-07Extramural Activity2 Comments

The buildings on North Street above the art deco Bank Of Ireland building – including a former home (called The Loft) of the artists’ collective now known as The Vault– were razed in 2017. Since then, the hoarding around the site has been a site for street art and graffiti art, most recently a series of Clash Street Kids pieces (inspired by the ‘Bash Street Kids’) by the TMN krew. The plan for the location is now to produce (for 100 million pounds) a building housing a multi-media presentation of the results of an “unparalleled programme of story collection” (Belfast City Council) that will be attractive to an anticipated 1.8 million annual visitors (Architects’ Journal).

For the street art in the background, see Belfast Deco.

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The Dead We Honour Here

2022-12-092025-01-07Extramural Activity1 Comment

“The dead we honour here made the noble sacrifice for a cause that should never be forgotten.” A new board has been added to the memorial to the Ulster Volunteers on the Newtownards Road at St Leonard’s Crescent (the old Newcastle Street) over the bricked-up windows of the Belvoir Bar (see previously Not For Sale). The annual parade of the Belvoir Somme Association took place at the end of September (youtube)

There is also a portrait of Carson (see the Paddy Duffy collection), moved up from its previous location on the corner of Welland Street. The UVF Band mural is to the right of the memorial: see The Great War and They Said We’d Never Last.

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Ulster’s VC Heroes david nelson ernest wright alexander william mcfadzean edmund de win richard annesley west hugh colvin james somers jams duffy robert morrow edward barry stewart bingham thomas hughes robert hill hanna robert quigg john spencer dunville eric norman frankland bell james crichton geoffrey st. george shillington cather james anson otho brooke john alexander sinton dedicated to the women of east belfast that served in wwi and wwii

The Great War And The Recent Conflict

2022-12-082025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“In remembrance of all those Ulster men and women from the greater Dunmurry area who died during the Great Wars 1914-18 and 1939-45. Also those men and women who died during the recent conflict. Lest we forget.” These are the same words as appeared on a plaque on the previous memorial, which included the Special Constabulary. In the background is a “Welcome to loyalist Seymour Hill” board with flags and poppies, along with a 2021 tarp reading “Seymour Hill says no to the Irish Sea border”.

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Derry’s Dead Children

2022-12-072025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a memorial garden in Westland Street, Derry, in remembrance of children who have died during the Troubles.

They are listed in the following order on the main stone: Bernadette McCool, Carol Ann McCool, Damien Harkin, Gary Gormley, Annette McGavigan, Manus Deery, James O’Hagan, Gerald Doherty, Daniel Hegarty, Tony Diamond, Gordon Gallagher, Kathleen Feeny, Michael Meenan, John McDaid, Paul Whitters, Stephen McConomy, Charles Love.

McGavigan was the first to die at the hands of British forces, in September 1971, though the cross on the right is to nine-year-old Damien Harkin, who was crushed in July 1971 by a British Army lorry accident in the Bogside (MFD). Gary Gormley was also crushed by an armoured car (MFD). McGavigan is depicted in one of the murals in the ‘Bogside Gallery‘ series: The Death Of Innocence.

Other deaths were earlier but did not involve British forces: the McCool sisters died in a premature explosion in Creggan in 1970 and James (Jim) O’Hagan was killed in August 1971 by a fellow IRA member.

Gerry Doherty, Kathleen Feeney, Tony Diamond, Gordon Gallagher, Michael Meenan, John McDaid, and Charles Love also died accidentally by their own or IRA actions (MFD profiles, which lists 20 children, adding David Devine, Joseph Connolly, and Kathryn Eakin). Charles Love was killed by flying masonry from an IRA bomb; he is remembered by a plaque in Fahan Street. There is also a plaque to Stephen McConomy in Fahan Street and long ago he was depicted in a mural in Glenfada Park.

The Manus Deery plaque under the tree to the right was previously on a wall behind the Bogside Inn, before the pub was torn down – see M01919.

On the left are words from WB Yeats’s The Stolen Child, also used in a Belfast mural to Julie Livingstone.

What Fire Does Not Destroy It Hardens

2022-12-062025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The memorial tarps to Ian Ogle were photographed on October 5th and appeared in a November 13th post: For His Family. On about the 18th of November they were subject to an arson attack. Belfast Live has reaction from the family.

Those Lives Changed Forever

2022-12-052025-01-07Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The Woodvale Blitz occurred when German air raids took place during the spring of 1941. The first raid took place on April 7th/8th, the next raid came at Easter on April 15th/16th, the 3rd air raid would come on the May 4th/5th and the final air raid would take place May 5th/6th. These attacks on the city would result in over 1,000 civilians being killed and 1,5000 injured. This was the highest casualty rate of any air raids outside London during the Second World War. It was in these streets that the Woodvale area was indiscriminately attacked resulting in the total devastation of Heather Street, Ohio Street, Palmer Street and Disraeli Street resulting in the loss of many lives injuring 100’s more, most of those lives lost were families who had lived in the area for generations. The effects of the air raids and the devastation caused would last for many years to come.” The names of 79 victims are given on the right (see close-up below).

“The Woodvale Blitz April-May 1941. ‘But for the loyalty of Northern Ireland we should have been confronted with slavery and death and the light which now shines so strongly throughout the world would have been quenched’ – Prime Minister Winston Churchill 1945. We remember those who were killed, those who survived and those lives changed forever.”

The Women Through The Ages mural has disappeared from the adjacent wall.