Here are five images of the St. James Youth mural on Rodney Parade across from the farm: “Music is our drug – R speaker is R dealer” and “Mates do hugs, not drugs”.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03835 X03836 X03554 X03555 X03834 [X02937] [X02938] [X02939] [X02940] [X02941] [X02942] dan devine inverness FC ruari dalton all-ireland boxing stephen webb boxer joseph mccall music promoter irish champion dee walsh professional boxer stephen hall snooker bam neeson GAA
The Belfast Pride festival runs from July 29th to August 7th this year, with a parade on the 6th. 8 weeks ago today (on June 12th) 49 people were shot to death in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The images below are from Ardoyne Avenue and Northumberland Street.
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Northern Ireland take on Wales in the Euro 2016 football championship after qualifying for the knockout stage with a 2-0 win over Ukraine, with goals by Gareth McAuley (featured in the mural) and Niall McGinn.
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X03545 X03544 our wee country norn iron uefa france irish football association arc de triomphe
Voters (finally!) go to the polls today in the much-discussed “Brexit” referendum. Opinion on the nationalist side is split – the image above advises “leave” “for independence, for democracy, for freedom, for Europe, for peace” while in the third image the poster is pro-remain with the suggestion that “We’re better off in.” In between, a poster in a loyalist area alleges that “We send the EU £50 million every day — let’s spend that on our NHS instead.”
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X03542 [X03515] X03541 X03543 [also X03669] whiterock rd twaddell ave clondara st james connolly nora connolly obrien british government has no right in ireland éırígí
One hundred years ago today, on July 1st, 1916, the Battle of Albert began, the first of many battles in what is known collectively as the Battle of the Somme. Soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Brigade went “over the top” at 7:28 a.m. By the end of the day, more than nineteen thousand British soldiers were dead, five thousand from the 36th.
The line “We gathered from our towns, our villages and farms, in answer to the echo of alarm” comes from the song “Armagh Brigade”; the alarm is more specifically “Carson’s loud alarm”. Below the main panel, which shows combat at close quarters, are the words of Wilfrid Spender: “I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday, the 1st. July, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world … the Ulster Volunteer Force, from which the Division was made, has won a name that equals any in history.”
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X03575 union st portadown uvf for god and ulster
19 year-old Sandy Row resident Gary Whittley was killed in a hit-and-run incident in November, 2005 (BBC-NI) with charges being brought in 2008 (Tele). Most of the mural, which showed him in boxing gear, (see below for a 2012 image) is now gone, but the quote from 2nd Timothy remains: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
Wellwood Street, Sandy Row, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The image below is from a Twelfth bonfire collection point in Belvoir in April, threatening a fifty pound fine for anyone caught dumping unwanted material. The image above of a collection point near Sandy Row articulates what is unwanted: ironing boards, chairs, washing machines, sofas, sinks, fridges, wheels, comfy chairs, toilets, beds, stoves. This Belfast Telegraph article includes a good image of the pallets gathered in the car-park.
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Snooker player Alex “Hurricane” Higgins died on this day, July 24th, in 2010. He was inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame in 2011 as (twice) winner of the World Snooker Championship, UK Championship, and (twice) Masters. Upon winning the 1982 World Championship, an emotional Higgins was joined on the floor by his wife Lynn Avison and (shown above) daughter Lauren.
This is one of the panels of the long community mural in Stroud Street, painted in 2012.
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Northern Ireland plays its second match in Euro 2016 today against Ukraine in Lyon, France, hoping to improve on the 1-0 loss to Poland in the first game. Danish beer-maker Carlsberg, whose national team did not make it to the championship, is an official sponsor of the tournament and is advertising in connection with the championship both north and south. The hoarding above is just off Sandy Row in south Belfast, above a UDA/UFF mural “in proud memory of our fallen comrades”.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03532 X03531 X03530 boyne ct football soccer we forget them not at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them quis separabit
The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1987. In addition to organising a team of assassins in the 70s and 80s, he founded a Political Research Group and wrote two documents proposing an independent Northern Ireland. The memorial garden, shown in full in the image below, is just off Sandy Row, near the John McMichael Centre. The other pieces can be seen in close-up in ‘A’ Batt. See also: We Must Share The Responsibility
“There is no section of this divided Ulster community which is totally innocent or indeed totally guilty, totally right or totally wrong. We all share the responsibility for creating the situation, either by deed or by acquiescence. Therefore, we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and then share the responsibility of maintaining good government.” (John McMichael 1948-1987)
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 