Belfast north

Free The POWs

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This 1997 mural is a collage of images from the previous 30 years, including banging binlids on the ground, Maıréad Farrell in Armagh prison, men on the blanket, the cages of Long Kesh, marches in support of the hunger strikers, and reproductions of various posters, against Margaret Thatcher, plastic bullets, internment, and censorship. There’s a quote from Bob Dylan in the middle, “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see – the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.”

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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Let There Be No Bitterness

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Michael Gaughan’s final message included the line “Let there be no bitterness on my behalf, but a determination to achieve the new Ireland for which I gladly die” which is loosely quoted in this hunger strikers Ardilea Close (in the Bone) mural. He is buried with Frank Stagg in Leigue Cemetery, Ballina (WP). The mural has been added behind the plaque to the hunger strikers in the middle-right: “Erected by the Olpark 1981 Committee. In proud and loving memories fo ten young Republicans who gave their lives during the 1981 hunger-strike in the H.Blocks of Long Kesh. No greater love than a man lay down his life for his friends.”

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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Forget The Past

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“HET” was the “Historical Enquiries Team”, investigating unsolved killings from the Troubles. It lasted from 2005 to 2014 (WP). The graffiti in these images from Mount Vernon and the Shore Road, are perhaps specifically in connection with the investigation into the UVF unit in the area (BelTel) and the murder of Jim Harbinson (BelTel). “Forget the past – peace was delivered”, “HET go home”, “Gerry Adams ya peado [sic] – root da kids”.

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Copyright © 2010 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Pictures

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“Artist Daniela Balmaverde has worked with older members of the local community to reminisce and to appreciate those from North Belfast who have made an impact on our broader society. A multiplicity of initiatives has altered the face and conditions of life in this community with Re-Imaging making a positive contribution to a long-term process. The project was launched by the Lord Mayor on August 2009 This project was funded through the Re-Imaging Communities programme of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and delivered by Belfast City Council with the support of Lower Ormeau Road Resident’s Action Group. This project is supported by the Shared Communities Consortium.”

The figures in the mural include Buck Alec Robinson, Rinty Monaghan, Sam McAughtry, Sir James Galway, Dame Mary Peters, Norman Whiteside, and Wayne McCullough. The mural replaced is the one equating the American Confederates with the Ulster Volunteers in Alliance Crescent.

Update: 2022 shot of the blanked wall

Copyright © 2009 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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UVF 3rd Battalion North Belfast

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The UVF memorial garden in Mount Vernon gets a new wall, with poppy crosses on either side of the gate (see the previous wall). On the mural, the battles that the 36th (Ulster) Division took part in are listed on either side of the silhouetted soldier: Ypres, Fricourt, Cambrai, Thiepval, Messines, Beaucourt, Somme, Albert, Flanders, St Quentin, Bailleul, Courtrai. Although the mural is in Mount Vernon, the scroll at the top says “Tiger’s Bay”. The memorial stone is to the “3rd battalion, north Belfast”. A plaque would later replace the poppy cross to the left of the gate.

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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The War Of Northern Aggression

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The confederate attempt to secede from the United States is here put in parallel with loyalist resistance to Home Rule. The Visual History page on Ulster-Scots Murals contains an attempt to understand the logic of this mural.

Various “sons of Ulster who led the confederate army” “during the War of Northern Aggression” [a.k.a. the Civil War] are quoted in the mural:

  • “Do your duty as I have done mine – General [James Ewell Brown] Jeb Stuart”
  • “It is history that teaches us to hope – General Robert E Lee”
  • “All that I am and all that I have is at the service of my country – General Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson”
  • “The government at Washington denying our right to self-government, refused even to listen to any proposals for peaceful separation. Nothing was then left to do but prepare for war – President Jefferson Davis, inaugural address at Richmond, Virginia, February 22nd 1862”.
  • “My Ulster blood is my most priceless heritage” on the left-most panel is from James Buchanan.

The sons of Ulster who wrote and signed the Ulster Covenant during the Home Rule crisis of 1912 are described in this quote:

“Being convinced in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom … – The Ulster Covenant, written by Thomas Sinclair, Ulster Day, September 1912 inspired by Scotland’s Solemn League and Covenant, Greyfriar’s Churchyard, Edinburgh 1638.”

The right-most panel reads, “From pioneers to Presidents”. Murals under this theme – including two of Buchanan – were painted in 1999 (Belfast | Londonderry). This mural dates back to 2005 and perhaps earlier, part of a second wave of Ulster Scots murals that included Davy Crockett in Ballymena (2002), a gallery of famous famous faces in Newtownards (2005), and Andrew Jackson in the Shankill (c. 2007). See Visual History 08.

See also: the Confederate flag flying in Cluan Place | a confederate battle flag in Ballymacarett.

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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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