Belfast south

The Most That Man Can Give

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2014-08-18 LindsayWWI+

Computer-generated board in Lindsay Street showing a map of the northern end of the Western Front and images of soldiers marching, on horseback, and in the trenches: Donegall Pass remembers 1914-1918 the great sacrifice. Lest we forget. Here are commemorated the many local men who during the Great War of 1914-1918 gave the most that man can give: life itself for God for King and Country.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02090 36th ulster division those who fell basset dewar dunlop gourley hall halliday hamilton hayes hazlett jess jones kitson kydd mcallister mccollam mckissack mcwilliams motherwell nixon patterson scott wright yates the day break and the shadows flow away st mary magdalene parish

Scotland’s Burden

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2014-08-17 AlbainEire+

The mural above pairs the emblem of Celtic – a Scottish team – with a former emblem of the FAI – the governing body for the Republic’s national team (and, at the time this mural was painted (2002 according to CAIN), league football in the South). Celtic shoulders the footballing dreams of many Northern Ireland nationalists, which is perhaps why, below the flags of Scotland and Ireland, what should be “Albain agus Éıre” is in fact “Albaın agus eıre”: Scotland and a burden.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02084 club 1888 friendly street saltire association ireland

Shovel-Ready

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2014-08-13 HideoutShovels+

A selection of shovels and brooms stand to attention in the courtyard of The Hideout bar, in Donegall Pass, beneath boards to the 14th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles and soldiers in WWI.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02079 somme thiepval beaumont hamel st. quentin ypres messines arras passchendaele they shall not grow old as we that are left grow old age shall not weary them nor the years condemn at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them lest we forget ycv young citizen volunteers

At The Pass

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2014-08-11 UVFDonegallPass+

South Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force 2nd Battalion “A” Company Donegall Pass, with the flag of England (St. George’s Cross) in one corner and in the other an orange star with “1912” written below, the year the Ulster Volunteers were founded. The colour-scheme is the reverse of the Orange Order’s: its flag has the purple star of the Williamites on an orange field.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02073

Veni, Vidi, Vici

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2014-08-09 DonPassFluteBand2+

New Young Conquerors Flute Band mural in Pine Street, south Belfast, connecting the band to local soldiers who died in WWI.

Video of the launch at the Young Conquerors Fb page.

2014-08-09 DonPassWide+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02064 X02067 est. 1976 2014 somme ypres beaumont-hamel messines thiepval st. quentin grandcourt fricourt beaucourt albert rosieres cambrai langmark bailleul courtrai flanders schwaben-redoubt passchendaele

100 Years Apart

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2014-08-09 DonegallPass2013+

Visible from the Ormeau Road, this large union flag greets visitors to Donegall Pass in the south of the city. It asserts the presence of the UVF and connects the original Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913 to the present-day group one hundred years later: the aim of the original UVF was to resist the impending rule by Catholics under Home Rule.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02062 2013

Defenders Of The Pass

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2014-08-09 DonPassPhoto+

Here are close-ups of the two boards to either side of the new Young Conquerors piece (featured recently in Veni, Vidi, Vici). The first shows a photograph of the original Donegall Pass Defenders Flute Band, which lasted a short time in the 1970s before the formation of the Conquerors in 1977 (Fb). The second shows the patch of the band.

Update (2015-01): Nikki has kindly sent us an image of the band parading, taken sometime in the 1970s. Her grandfather, Thomas Lorimer, recently passed away and she found the picture in his roof space. He was a member of the Defenders and is at the far left of the picture, on the bass drum. She was also able to identify him in the posed picture from the board – shown in detail below; he is the tall gent in the back.

2014-08-09 DonPassPatch+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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DonPassDefendParade
Copyright © Family of Thomas Lorimer. Used with permission.

DonPassDefendersDetail

First Movement

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2014-08-08 MarketsFiacc+

Patrick O’Connor was born on this day in 1924 on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraıc Fıacc (“fıach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:

Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind
Sift on far-off Ards
Drift hazily …
I was born on such a morning
Smelling of the bone yards
The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs
The wayward storm birds
And to the east where morning is, the sea
And to the west where evening is, the sea
Threatening with danger
And it would always darken suddenly

Some of Fıacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. There are two videos below. The first is an interview with NVTv’s Bernard Conlon; the second is of a reception in Belfast City Hall.

X09071 2022-02-14 Fiacc d

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Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02057 [X09070] X09071 1929

End The Siege On Gaza

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2014-08-08 MarketsGazaDetail+

Tears of blood flow from a boy’s face, shrouded by a Palestinian flag and behind barbed wire. The shot below of the full mural (launched 2014-07-29) includes a quote from Malcolm X: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the oppressor.”

2014-08-08 MarketsGazaFull+

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02058 X02059 free The Market community supports Palestine.