Another entry in a growing list of religious placards adorning the streets during the covid-19 pandemic, this time from the Shankill: “Drive-In Gospel – Gospel Hall Matchett Street, Sunday at 7:00pm.” According a survey cited in this FT article, the faith of Americans has generally strengthened during the pandemic.
Previously: Rediscover The Power Of The Rosary | Freedom Of Religion | Nearer My God To Thee
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Social distancing was hard to maintain in some areas (BelTel) but many people celebrated the 12th from home this year, thank in part to messages such as appear on this pair of paste-ups in Olive Street and Glenvale Street off the Woodvale Road. “This year the bands are coming to you!” “This year’s 12th is about the battle with the [coronavirus] bug.”
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“A Wee City For Everyone”. The old BHS store in Corn Market, Belfast, is (still) being redeveloped. In the meantime, an accordion player joins David McMillan’s (web | ig) marching band on the hoarding around the site. Originally for Culture Night Belfast in 2019-09.
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Probably a joke, but perhaps indicative of the competition between race and gender to be the dominant category of social analysis in the last few years. Class comes a distant third at the moment (but we’ll have a gallery of Workers’ Party posters tomorrow).
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St Mary’s in the city centre is open, but with precautions against the spread of coronavirus. A one-way system is in effect. Seating is in alternate pews. “No singing; no loud talking.” And the use of holy water is “temporarily” suspended.
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JJB Sports went into receivership in 2012 and the Royal Avenue shop was (is?) to become a Wetherspoons (Future Belfast). In the meantime, the hoarding is used by Leo Boyd (web | ig | Fb). Welcome to the simulation!
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“Summer” continues today with showers and a high temperature of 18. Danni Simpson (web | ig) helps us keep perspective on the Norn Iron weather: “no rain, no flowers”. She has also painted the scaffold at the North Street end of Garfield Street – see the final image, preceded by a 2019 shot from when the scaffolding was raised.
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The fact that there are three memorials to the Balmoral Furniture bombing speaks to the shock felt at devastating bomb on a busy Shankill Road. The oldest is the small circular plaque: “Balmoral Furniture Showrooms bombed 12.25 pm Saturday 11th December 1971. 2 adults & 2 babies killed”; then the Poppy Cross (c. 2015) “in memory of the two men and two babies murdered at this spot by a no warning sectarian IRA bomb attack on the Balmoral Furniture shop on 11th December 1971”, and finally the traditional plaque (c. 2017), which names the victims: Colin Nicholl, Tracey Jane Munn, Harold King, Hugh Bruce.
On the side of the Shankill Leisure Centre.
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Today’s post updates the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (web) mural seen previously in We Support All POWs. The shot was evidently taken before the mural was complete: the stencil shown here, of a hand clasping a strand of barbed wire, and an e-mail address (Belfast32csm@hotmail.com) for people to “Join 32CSM” have been added.
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“‘It is not enough to be a revolutionary and an adherent of socialism or a Communist in general. You must be able at each particular moment to find the particular link in the chain which you must grasp with all your might in order to hold the whole chain and to prepare firmly for the transition to the next link; the order of the links, their form, the manner in which they are linked together, their difference from each other in the historical chain of events are not as simple and not as senseless as those in an ordinary chain made by a smith.’ – Vladimir Lenin. Workers’ Party West Belfast [Fb].” The quote is from Lenin’s The Immediate Tasks Of The Soviet Government in 1918.
Divis Street, west Belfast.
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 