Join Saoradh

This space on Ardoyne Avenue was used for “cultural” murals from 1997 to 2015, when Staır Na Gaeılge was replaced by Resistance. In its latest incarnation, Saoradh (web – the organisation’s Facebook page is currently blocked) have made a small addition to the side-wall in the centre of the image above.

For the larger pieces, see Homes!!! and Lidl On Equality.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Britain Remembers

Although not completely visible in the image below, the ‘Britain remembers’ Remembrance Day flag includes the Ulster Banner, the flag of NI parliament until 1972, rather than the St Patrick’s Saltire. This is also the flag used by the Irish Football Association, the governing body of soccer in NI, to represent its teams, as is shown by the personalised supporter’s plaque in Cosgrave Heights. The organisation’s name derives from the fact that the body pre-dates partition and used to govern the whole island and not just “our wee country”.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Faulky Lad

Craig Faulkner died by suicide on July 8th, 2016 (Belfast Live). His was one of the deaths among amateur footballers that spurred the SAMHI initiative (Belfast Live). (See previously: It’s OK To Talk). This board to his memory is on the path between Hightown Road carpark (above the Horseshoe Bend) and the top of the Cavehill Road – he was from and played soccer in Ballysillan.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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You Are Enough

Anti-suicide “messages of hope” were originally posted around the Cavehill in August (ITV) but were removed in September (Belfast Live) before being replaced – as shown in these images. Similar posters on the Foyle Bridge in London-/Derry were last week slated for removal at the end of January, pending a 12-week “public consultation process” (BelTel).

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Earl’s Thorn Bush

The emblem on the flats at the mini-roundabout (where Glandore and Skegoneill avenues meet) depicts a tree and a face, perhaps a reference to the name “Skegoneill” or ‘the earl’s thorn bush” after the place at which Anglo-Norman earl William de Burgo was assassinated in 1333 (PlaceNamesNI).

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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We Buy Stolen Goods

“Up the gangbangers.” Hoods from the New Lodge Road (some recent disturbances: Belfast Live | Irish Times | BelTel | Irish News) leave a graffiti message on top of Ed Reynolds’s (web) mural, seen previously in The Old New LodgeOn My Wedding Day, St Patrick’s and Faces From The Past, the last of which includes an image of the mural getting a coat of anti-graffiti varnish.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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