A pig on a scooter. A disembodied head of Jesus of Nazareth (seen previously in One Love). And (below) the Springfield Road “peace” line.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Unseen Miracles
Belfast
Strand Spinning Mill
The Strand Spinning Mill on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast began life as the Jaffe Spinning Mill, after Otto Jaffe, a Jewish-German emigrant from Hamburg who became a naturalized citizen, early benefactor of Queen’s University (in 1905 he contributed £3000) and twice Lord Mayor of Belfast. It quickly became the Strand Spinning Mill when he sold it to Mackies in 1912. The mill made munitions during WWI and viscose rayon during WWII. The mill closed in 1983 and now provides space to small businesses as the Portview Trade Centre.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Eastát Ghleann Collaınn
This mural in the Glen Colin estate, just off the Glen Road, shows The Roddy’s club (in white) with the hunger striker memorial in the shape of a harp in front (shown in the image below) and the St. Oliver Plunkett church, which is in fact on the other (southern) side of the Glen Road, with the twin peaks of Divis and Black Mountain in the background. The Bobby Sands quote “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children” is at the bottom.
Previously featured: The Battle Of Antrim in the grounds of The Roddy’s.
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X01739 X01758 volunteers irish freedom hughes mccreesh o’hara mcdonnell doherty lynch hurson mcelwee devine mccorley
The Rebel’s Rest
The Rebel’s Rest /Scíth An Reıbılúnaıgh pub on the Falls at Cupar Street Lower has closed and been sold.
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His Free Will No Thing Can Kill
This printed tarp on the side of the Falls Road commemorates the ten 1981 hunger strikers (along with Frank Stagg, Michael Gaughan, Nora Connolly, and Maıréad Farrell, paired with international figures Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Leonard Peltier, and Nelson Mandela) and features a verse from a Bobby Sands poem The Crime Of Castlereagh: “All things must come to pass as one/So hope should never die/There is no height or bloody might/That a freeman can’t defy./There is no source or foreign force/Can break one man who knows,/That his free will no thing can kill/And from that freedom grows.”
This tarp, which is 20′ x 20′, was printed from Mo Chara’s original 8′ x 8′ painting; it was also printed on a 30′ x 30′ tarp in New York. For all three, see the Chronological Catalogue of Mo Chara’s works.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01742 freedom saoırse easter lily an róısín roısín dubh mahatma gandhi MLK martin luther king nelson mandela fuıseog barbed wire their cause is ours dedicated brave irish sacrificed
Art & Literature
The Falls Road library is a ‘Carnegie Library’ (WP) – built with almost 4,000 pounds donated by Scotland-born American Andrew Carnegie. It opened on January 2nd, 1908, the second of three such libraries in Belfast, alongside Oldpark and Donegall Road. Its doors feature these two pieces by Holywood artist Rosamund Praeger: Art, seen here holding an artist’s palette – and Literature, seen below reading a folio. Art and Literature also take the form of angels, along with a third muse, Science, in the stonework above the doors.
Video history of the library from Northern Visions.
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Fáılte Go Dtí An Maıgh Ard/Welcome To Moyard
Welcome sign and insignia of the Matt Talbot youth centre (and óglaıgh sign on the building) on New Barnsley Gardens in Moyard.
Previously: Moyard Waterworld
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Fluent Together/Líofa Le Chéıle
Protestants and the Irish language (Gaeılge) have been in the news again this week, as UUP councillors walked out of a North Down Council meeting ahead of a presentation on Protestants and Irish on Tuesday (BBC). This follows remarks by a Grand Master of the Orange Order, George Chittick, that Protestants should not learn Irish (video at BBC) prompted by the construction of a floor of the Skainos Centre for Irish-language instruction (BelTel).
The hoarding shown above (this one on the Andersonstown Road) is for a 2011 NI Department of Culture, Arts & Leisure initiative which hopes to make 4,000 people fluent in Irish by 2015. It features three Gaelic words which have passed into English – craıc, smıdıríní (smithereens) and bróg.
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X01738 everybody speaks everyday now share more fragments shoe
Easter Parade
A board in the Glen Rd/Falls Road triangle: “Belfast I.R.S.P. Commemoration parade, Easter Sunday, Dunville Pk 11am”. The board is a permanent fixture but this year the commemoration in question is of the 40th anniversary of the IRSP itself, as well as the 1916 Rising.
Featured previously from the same location: Slash Stormont | Finucane 25 | Revolutionary Party
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Uncovering The Past
Three generations of boards at the junction of the Falls and Glen roads: from most recent to least: Pearse Jordan (“Murdered by RUC! Covered up by PSNI”), Gibraltar Three (“I nDıl Chuımhne”; this was later realized on the Divis Street International Wall, see 25 Years), and a (presumably) IRSP board (“If there is to be a revolution, there must be a revolutionary party.” [Mao Zedong]). The oldest of the three appears to be the one in the best shape. The site itself used to be the Andersonstown RUC/Army barracks.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01733 unarmed ira volunteer a victim of britain’s shoot-to-kill policy irish republican socialist party british government policies of collusion justice delayed denied truth and justice now
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 