City/Town

Balmoral Showrooms

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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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Join 32CSM

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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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Find The Link In The Chain

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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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This Year’s Twelfth

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Here are seven posters from the wall of the Shankill Leisure Centre and the Shankill Road Mission building urging people not to congregate when watching the parades. “This year the bands are coming to you!” “This year’s 12th is about the battle with the bug”. See previously: #SafeShankill | Battle Of The Bug

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A Matter Of Life And Death

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Eddie The Trooper is a British red-coat version of Iron Maiden’s Eddie The Head. And “These Colours Don’t Run” is a song from the band’s 2006 album A Matter Of Life And Death. The phrase is a pun equating the colours of the flag with the army beneath it – neither the colours nor the army “runs”. This lower Shankill sticker, from Rangers FC “ultra” supporters the ‘Union Bears’ (Fb | web) is on the side of a butt bucket – another reason for not running.

The specific design seems to be the most recent version from Londonderry – see Eddie The Trooper’s own Visual History page.

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The Gateway Is Love

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William Swanston, with partner Thomas Bones, commissioned a new building for their linen collar and cuff concern, to be raised in 1890 at the corner of Queen and College streets. Arthur Chichester, flanked by the coats of arms of Belfast and Ulster, looks down over the now-unused doorway. (For more, see the excellent page at History Hub Ulster.) Swanston House is known to many in Belfast as the home of the Athletic Stores and the Educational Company; the facade was retained for its current incarnation ‘The Roost’, a student dormitory.

“‘Soul is deep, essence is beauty, the journey is freedom & the gateway is love’ – Beatrix.” 

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The Craft Centre

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Father Des Wilson and Frank Cahill sit together in a Springhill flat overlooking Tara Stores and the Craft Centre, two of the enterprises they helped to establish (along with the Whiterock Industrial Estate) in an attempt to bring employment to the area. Around 1982, they were part of a group that bought Conway Mill for use as a community and business centre; the image above was taken in the contemporary Conway Mill.

On the right, the accomplishments and accolades of Seán MacBride are listed (shown below). During the course of his life, MacBride was an IRA member and imprisoned by the Free State, founder of Clann Na Poblachta and TD, and international politician including a spell as chair of Amnesty International. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 (WP). The MacBride Principles of 1984 set out nine conditions of fair employment.

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When You Enter This Loving School

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“Welcome: When you Enter this Loving school Consider yourself One of the special Members of an Extraordinary family”. Two images from St Patrick’s primary on the edge of the New Lodge. The “Hail Mary’ is written in Irish

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