New Mural Loading

Muraling gets meta, just off the Cliftonville Road. A mural is such a familiar mode of expression in Belfast that one is expected on every wall, and even more so in the post-Agreement years when the state enters as a third source of murals. The pixelated hourglass and font of the text hearken back to computers of the 1990s.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Ballybeen RHC

“Where so ever, how so ever or whenever we are called upon to make our exit, we shall do so as proud men.” (Another UVF mural in east Belfast has “as free men”.) A hooded gunman from the Red Hand Commando stands at the ready. The first of the four crests is the (rare, possibly restricted to the Morven Park murals) “RHC Youth”; then PAF, UVF, and YCV. Morven Park, Ballybeen.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Life In Divis

Here are eight images of the long (very long!) mural on the wall between Divis and the motorway, with scenes of life in Divis from yesteryear: kids swinging on lampposts, people praying in St Peter’s, women having a pint in the pub. Also notable is the hut made out of SDLP electoral signs. For a larger (in progress) set, see C01256.

[Partial ordering From left to right: shop + drinking + van | 3 women (above) + Belfast Celtic + boxer | pub house + 3 girls washing feet | trike + lamppost swing | praying | …]

[… | paperboy + pair on bike + communion pair | boy with ball + solo older man | 3 women in pub + street | …]

[… | man in profile + youths]

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Ambassadors For Peace

“Ambassadors For Peace” is a programme for young people from the Shankill, Divis, and Newington who, along with students from Susquehanna University, painted both sides of the two security gates on Lanark Way with positive messages in 2010. “Today’s riots are tomorrow’s history”, “There was never a good war or a bad peace” and the two included here “The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war” and “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make them your friend”.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Fáılte Go Dtí West Belfast

A new Fáılte Feırste Thıar mural is being painted below Divis tower that will serve as a transition from the city centre to (CNR) west Belfast.

Below, an even earlier shot of the work in progress from 2011-05-27.

For the completed mural, see the entry at Peter Moloney Collection – Murals.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Victoria Crosses

“Only by remembering these men, and others like them, can we ever repay their memory.” Nine Victoria Cross recipients from the 36th (Ulster) Division in World War I are honoured in this board on the Shankill at the Co-Op (which was previously across the road in Crimea Street).

The nine are (from 1917 and 1918) E[dmund] De Wind, E[rnest] Seaman, C[ecil] L[eonard] Knox, N[orman] Harvey, (from 1916) G[eoffrey] St. G[eorge] S[hillington] Cather, W[illiam] F[rederick] McFadzean, E[ric] N[orman] F[rankland] Bell, R[obert] Quigg, and J[ames] S[amuel] Emerson

The illustrations come from Cyril Falls’s book The History Of The 36th (Ulster) Division (from Project Gutenberg).

The poem In Flanders’ Fields is by Canadian John McCrea.

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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