“This memorial is in honour of the men from our neighbourhood who made the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War. The handmade ceramic poppies were created by the GVRT [Greater Village Regeneration Trust] Well Women’s Group.”
The Poppy Trail: 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The story of the lead image is told in the images below. First, Paul Doran and Mark Ervine paint a mural of two “Chuckle Babies” (images 2 and 3 – see also Mark’s baby for Hit The East) between Imagine and the Frederick Douglass mural with its recently Xed out Aung San Suu Kyi and obscured by the recently-painted lower gates of the war wall (a.k.a “peace” line) on Northumberland Street (image 4).
Secondly, the mural is covered in French posters from the 1970s – which visitors were encouraged to sign and leave messages on – as “Act 1” of the No Walls project involving KRM (Cherif and Geza, a couple from France and Germany), Paul Doran, and Londoner John Costi, and which also included an exhibition in the Titanic museum (pdf of the full project).
Some of the posters and writing were ripped off (to be used in Act 2) on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 (video at the Irish News) to reveal again the babies (final image).
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Street artist Visual Waste (web) chose Game Of Thrones character Tyrion Lannister as his subject for Culture Night/Hit The North.
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This Ardoyne hoarding for Saoradh the “revolutionary republican party ” (web | Fb), uses a pike (for 1798 Rebellion), the Sunburst (traditionally used by Fıanna Éıreann), and the Starry Plough (from the Irish Citizen Army of the Easter Rising). Cut off at the top is a red star of socialism.
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The PPR (Participation & The Practice Of Rights) project has called for homes to be built at the Crumlin Road “Hillview” site but the council’s planning council approved a retail park (Belfast Live) by a vote of 7 to 6 (BelTel). The connection to supermarket chain Lidl is unclear, as there is no mention of a supermarket in the plans for the retail park. If you can shed any light, please leave a comment. Their slogan “Lidl: Big on quality, Lidl on price” has been rephrased as “Lidl: Big on quality, Lidl on equality”.
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This is a tarp from republican party Saoradh (“liberation” web | Fb), alleging that the “supposed police service in the north of Ireland” is engaged in “the brutal militarised suppression of a civilian population”. “The uniform may be different but the brutal tactics are the same.” “End human rights abuses in Ireland now”. Replaces the Resistance tarp (previously seen in Ardoyne).
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The Ulster Special Service Forces (USSF) was an elite unit of the Ulster Volunteers. Its flag includes the UVF emblem with a garland of thistle, shamrock, and rose. For an earlier (1988) example and more info, see USSF in Belfast; also another in Londonderry (1998).
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The mortal hand that has framed the fearful symmetry of Blake’s Tyger is Friz, in her piece for CNB17/HTN17. “Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright/In the forests of the night/What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
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Work by DMC (Fb | web) for Culture Night/Hit The North, replacing his (vandalised) former mural Long Runs The Fox.
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When the UFF hooded gunman were removed from the corner of Kilburn Street and Donegall Road in 2009, a memorial panel to the UDA’s Stephen “Benson” Kingsberry, who died from consuming tainted ecstasy (perhaps distributed by the UVF) was again included, illustrated with a poppy – an early use of what has become common in 2017: UDA (rather than UVF) poppies, as seen in Fulton & Goatley | Common Sense | Sandy Row Remembers. For the main mural see Progress.
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 