City/Town

Belfast Taxis Community Interest Company

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“Serving the community for over fifty years.” BTCIC is the current name for what was previously the West Belfast Taxi Association. Black taxis have been running up and down the Falls since 1970, providing an alternative form of transportation to local people during the Troubles when buses were cancelled or, as in this picture, burnt out and used as barricades. They now, in addition, provide tours of the murals (such as the Bobby Sands mural in Sevastopol Street) and Belfast city. Taxi Trax has a web site but here provides a phone number for those already at the International Wall, where there has been a black taxi mural since 2003. There are other WBTA murals in Beechmount and Ardoyne. The painters have signed the mural: Doherty’s Coal Merchant and Lyons Tea.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Decolonisation

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“In memory of our fallen INLA volunteers, upper Springfield area: Hugh Ferguson, Ronnie Bunting, Noel Little, Hugh O’Neill, Micky Kearney, John McColgan, Paddy “Paddybo” Campbell. Comrades: Barry “Baz” McMullan, Sean “Shanto” fleming, Harry O’Hara, Paul Collins, Bernado Brownlee, Emmanuel Kelly, Michael Conlon, Billy Lynch, James “Harpo” Murray, John Kennaway. Saoırse go deo [freedom forever].” Ferguson was the first member of the INLA to die, in 1975 in the feud with the OIRA. Bunting and Little/Lyttle (both Protestants) were shot dead in 1980 in Bunting’s Andersonstown home by masked gunmen from the UDA or SAS with RUC complicity.

Whiterock Road, Belfast, next to the Kevin Lynch – Marian Price – Kevin Lynch wall.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Is Deontóır Mé/Yes, I Donate

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500 people took part in the 10K Na Ceathrún Gaeltachta/Gaeltacht Quarter 10K last Sunday to raise awareness for organ donation. Youngster Dáıthí Mac Gabhann (Donate4Daithí Fb) has become the face of the Irish-language campaign; his Facebook site has a gallery of 300+ images from the race. The mural above is on the Whiterock Road. You can register as a donor with the NHS.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions

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Northern Ireland last night beat Israel 3-nil in a soccer “friendly” at Windsor Park. Gael Force Art took to Sliabh Dubh (Black Mountain) to support Palestinians and the BDS Movement, saying there’s “nothing friendly” about Israel’s human rights record (the full GFA statement is here).  Other protests – and counter-protests – took place elsewhere in the city (BelTel).

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Dee Street Remembers

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A new series of UDA “memorial” murals has been painted along Island Street, in east Belfast. Poppies are featured throughout, as we have increasingly seen over the last few years. New to this series, however, are the use of Lawrence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen in the third panel (see below) and in the image above – the left-most of the four – modern UDA volunteers stand in reflection upon an above-ground grave, also symbolic of the fallen of World War I.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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UVF Motor Car Corps

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The first time that the horseless carriage was used in a military operation was the Ulster Volunteers’ “Larne Gunrunning” of April 1914. By this time, there are thought to have been 350 vehicles in the Corps (Angelsey). It’s not clear whether the cars were later used by the 36th (Ulster) Division – please comment/get in touch if you can shed light on this. (For Spencer’s quote on the left, see I am not an Ulsterman.) The plaque is to (modern) UVF volunteer ‘Squeak’ Seymour.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Boom

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Three members of the Miami Showband were killed in 1975 at a fake check-point set by members of the UVF’s Glennane Gang. The explosion during the incident did not kill the musicians (as the graffiti on the poster above in loyalist east Belfast suggests); they were shot. Rather, a bomb exploded prematurely as it was being planted on their van, killing two of the attackers – see Boyle & Somerville – prompting the shooting spree (WP) that left three of the five band-members dead.

For the mural in the background, see Please Pay Here.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Shrouds Of The Somme

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English artist Rob Heard (web | tw) created 3,775 jointed wooden sculptures, wrapped in calico, one for each soldier from the 36th (Ulster) and 10th (Irish) and 16th (Irish) regiments, or from Belfast, whose body was not recovered from the Somme battlefields. They were laid out last month in the Garden Of Remembrance at Belfast City hall (see second image). On Armistice Day this November, the Belfast figures will be included in a larger display commemorating 72,396 Commonwealth soldiers in London (more info).

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Winter’s End

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Shown are the White Witch (Jadis) and two wolves, Maugrim – Captain of the Secret Police – and Vardan (from the movie adaptation). The piece is called “Winter’s End” however, because Jadis’s reign over Narnia – the winter of 100 years – is under threat from Aslan the lion.

The piece is by Friz (web). The two images below are in-progress shots from March. For the metalwork in the top right, see Chains & Ropes. The corner – which is typically beset with cars – is in Townsley Street/Manderson Street, Belfast, next to CS Lewis square.

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Copyright © 2018 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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