Belfast

The Conlan Revolution

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Michael Conlan (tw | ig) won his first title and tenth professional bout on Saturday night (December 22nd), in Manchester, by defeating Englishman Jason Cunningham (BBC). He features here in one of the new murals on the Fáılte Feırste Thıar offices alongside the traditional Gaelic games of hurling, camogie, football, and handball.

Previously: Conlan’s 2012 Olympics mural. Also: Soccer, boxing, and football in Glen Bawn.

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Another Brick In The Wall

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The IRPWA/Saoradh/éıstıgí office on the Antrim Road is courting controversy (Irish News | BelTel) with its the holiday images in its front windows. On the right, a Grinch in PSNI uniform (in front of a bleeding poppy with swastika) harasses the child of a Soaradh member. (“Hey, peelers! Leave our kids alone” is a play on the Pink Floyd song ‘Another Brick In The Wall‘). On the left, Santa takes aim with a home-made RPG (modelled on the image included in Resistance).

The Derry IRPWA office also received a Grinch cartoon in which he is battering down a door.

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You’ve Got The Key Of The Street

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Plans to redevelop Castle Arcade were published in July (NewsLetter). The arcade runs between Castle Lane and Castle Place. The castle of Belfast originally stood at the top of High Street, built by the Normans in the late 12th century and then rebuilt by Arthur Chichester in 1611 but destroyed by fire in 1708 after which the area became commercialised (Belfast Entries | Belfast Castle). If you know the art’s creator, please comment or get in touch.

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Future Belfast

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Planning permission has been granted for a 16-storey residential building at the junction of Academy Street and Exchange Street, currently the site of street art by Dan Kitchener (The Dream), Friz (Thy Fearful Symmetry), Visual Waste (Harley Quinn), and Marca Mix (Keyboard Wizard). Work begins in “early 2019”.

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Join Saoradh

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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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In The Footsteps Of Heroes

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The 8th battalion of the RIR was drawn from east Belfast’s Ulster Volunteers in 1914. The board shown above, on the practice hall of Rising Sons Flute Band (Fb), shows the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme – the heroes that in whose footsteps the band claim to march.

The board replaces the tarp saying “Loyalists welcome“.

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The Devil’s Bagpipes

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In this grotesque image, a monk’s head serves as an instrument of the devil – a Reformation criticism of the Catholic church. The woodcut dates to c. 1530. The ogham script in the bottom pair of posters, which reads “Fucc [sic – there is no “k”] the DUP”, is not included in the original (British Museum). The modern reinterpretation is by TLO (ornamentalhermit.org). The ogham on the devil’s arm is unclear; it appears to read “cussfbelung” – comment if you can help.

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Guns For Ulster

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Carson, Crawford, and Craig are lionised as resisters of devolvement of Ireland to Dublin in the early twentieth century. Despite calling Home Rule “the most nefarious conspiracy that has ever been hatched against a free people” and vowing to fight it by “all means necessary”, including the Ulster Volunteers armed by Crawford’s “guns for Ulster”, Edward Carson “warned Ulster Unionist leaders not to alienate norther Catholics, as he foresaw this would make Northern Ireland unstable.”

Isthmus Street, east Belfast

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Britain Remembers

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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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We Forget Them Not

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Three of the UDA/UYM/LPA murals in Kenbaan Street (see We Forget Them Not and Tomorrow Belongs To Us) have been replaced by the spray-painted boards shown here and the wall of the memorial garden repainted. The red colour-scheme matches the Tim Collins board to the left.

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