Belfast

Do Not Touch

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Towards the end of August the advertising hoarding at the corner of Divis and Northumberland Streets was covered with brown paint and a warning scrawled along the bottom rail: “D-Coy wall – Do not touch – Belfast D Coy wall” (though the two “D”s were painted over). (See the second image.)

A few weeks later, the banner above was added, showing the men of the northern IRA’s D Coy “active service unit” (“ASU”), between images of the (Troubles-era) D Coy mural and memorial garden (PMC | History Carved In Stone). A direct line between the IRA of  and the PIRA unit is possible – some of the Northern Division went with Joe McKelvey, leader of the 3rd Division, to Dublin to support the anti-Treaty forces (WP) though most of the northern IRA accepted the assurance that the six counties would soon join the South. (For some guesstimates at the number of northerners who served pro-Treaty, see treasonfelony.)

But perhaps only an ideological heritage is intended, that the Black Mountain unit of 1921, and the D Coy of the Troubles, and the contemporary D Coy, alike aim at (Northern) Irish independence.

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Join Us And Have A Voice

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This is a 32 County Sovereignty Movement (32CSM) poster from west Belfast, asking people to “Dismantle partition – reject British rule”. The organisation describes itself as “a republican pressure group”. The Belfast cumann (Fb | web) is named after Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken (of the 1798 Rebellion).

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If You Strike Us Down Now, We Shall Rise Again

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“[I assume that I am speaking to Englishmen who value their freedom, and who profess to be fighting for the freedom of Belgium and Serbia [in WWI].] Believe that we too love freedom and desire it. To us it is more than anything else in the world. If you strike us down now, we shall rise again and renew the fight. You cannot conquer Ireland; you cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom. If our deed has not been sufficient to win freedom, then our children will win it by a better deed – Gen. P. H. Pearse” at his court martial in 1916.

Here are eight images of the memorial plaques to deceased Ardoyne IRA fianna and ógliagh fromt he 1970s: David McAuley, Joseph Campbell, Joseph McComiskey, Bernard Fox, Charles McCann, Seamus Cassidy, Trevor McKibbin, James McDade, Gerard McDade, James Reid, Terry Toolan, Brian Smyth, Paddy McAdorey, Denis Brown, Jim Mulvenna, Jackie Mailey, Frankie Donnelly, Laurence Montgomery.

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St Joseph’s

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Restoration on the exterior St Joseph’s chapel in Sailortown – a Catholic church decommissioned in 2001 – is set to begin this month (BelTel). The building, originally constructed in 1880, is in such a state that it was declared a dangerous building earlier this year (Irish News). Here are three images from the front: a masonry rose above the door; a plaque to two young girls who were killed by a UDA car bomb in 1972; and a wide shot. BelfastLive has a gallery of the interior, which also needs restoration.

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U’ll Do Nottin!

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A drugs-related dialogue on the walls of Berwick Road in Ardoyne. “AAD” is “Action Against Drugs” who threaten that “Drug dealers will be shot” (in June, they claimed responsibility for two killings – Irish News). But the respondent – perhaps with the power of the resurrection in mind – is unimpressed.

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St Mary’s Chapel Lane

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St Mary’s Chapel Lane is Belfast’s first post-penal law Catholic church, originally constructed in 1784 with funds from local Presbyterian and Anglican congregations (WP). The current building dates to 1868. It was made a “B1” listed building in 1979. The “doorcase” is described as follows in its entry: “Painted sandstone doorcase comprises a pair of round-headed door openings with vertically-sheeted timber doors and bowtel arches rising from squat green marble columns with elaborate stiff-leaf capitals surmounted by an oval niche housing a statue of St. Mary and flanking seraphims to the spandrels. The entire entrance is framed by a further bowtel arch with chevron moulding and outer hood moulding also rising from a pair of green marble columns.”

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