“KAT” (Kill all taigs, i.e. Catholics) in red, white and blue at the edge of the Glenbryn area at Alliance Crescent.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01470
Welcome to Upper Ardoyne
City/Town
May I Never Hear Such Cries Again!
These Kilburn Street boards commemorate the “Young Citizen Volunteers Of Ireland” and the battle of the Somme. The text in the side-wall board (shown below) is from the diary of a Somme soldier: “We surge forward. Bayonets sparkle and glint. Cries and curses rent the air. Chums fall, some without a word … and others … Oh, my God! May I never hear such cries again! There goes the YCV flag tied to the muzzle of a rifle. That man had nerve! Through the road just ahead of us we had crossed the sunken road. We could see khaki figures rushing the German front line. The Inniskillings had got at them.”
The larger board, on the right, describes the transition from rebels to British Army soldiers: “On the 17th May 1914 the Young Citizen Volunteers became a battalion of the Belfast regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force. This formed part of the Ulster Division authorised on 28th October 1914 which officially became the 14th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, part of the 109th brigade. The 14th saw action throughout the First World War.”
It includes a quote from Edward Carson, “You will find in your ranks men with the same ideals, men with the same loyalty and the same determination to uphold the rights of their country”, and a quote from VC winner William Fredrick McFadzean, “You people at home make me feel quite proud when you tell me I am the soldier boy of the McFadzeans. I hope to play the game and if I don’t add much lustre to it I certainly will not tarnish it.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01471 X05300
Covenant Of Hearts
“Ulster’s covenant of hearts” is the title given to the main board in this collection commemorating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Covenant in 1912 and the figure of Edward Carson, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, founder of the Ulster Volunteers, and first signatory of the covenant.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01468 28th september 1912 centenary province it is needful that we knit together as one man each strengthening the other and not holding back or counting the cost ulster council resolution signed by just under half a million men and women home rule bill belfast city hall lord londonderry chruches protestant craigavon unionists some in their own blood
Help For Heroes
“Remember the fallen, care for the living”. Five boards arranged into a single piece in Ebor Street, south Belfast. The large bottom panel features a silhouette of a (staged) photograph taken in Basra (DailyMail) of a soldier on a stretcher giving the ‘thumbs up’ sign.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01466 X01467
The Village People
Two masked gunmen point straight at the viewer in this UVF mural in south Belfast’s Village area. Straight-on shot, below.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01465 X01464 2nd battalion B Coy. for god and ulster
Every Street Tells A Story
Above is the centre portion of the board on the west side of the underpass on Donegall Avenue and Tates Avenue. It shows ‘John catching spricks + tadpoles’, ‘men playing pitch ‘n toss’, ‘gypsies who collected our potato peelings’ and ‘Nancy + Josie swinging from the lamppost‘. The wide show, below, also includes Mickey Marley’s Roundabout (the Townsend Street image of which was shown previously) on the left and ‘me and Dad going to the football’ past Jamesons shop, on the right. The companion board on the east side of the underpass was recorded separately. The title of today’s post is the official title of the project, by david creative.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01461 X01462
Pulling Back The Curtain
The wide image, below, shows an elderly gent pulling back a curtain under the Tates Avenue-Broadway overpass to reveal a scene from times past which includes suited men “going to the football”, a “Broadway hairdressers”, a “Nummy grocery van” and the two figures shown in the detail, above: “Andy of Broadway” and “Rev. Charlie Maguire, the minister on a bicycle”.
The piece (and its companion across the street) were done by “david creative,” (David McClelland) and you can see images of the conception and development of the piece at his web site.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01459 X01460
Not Child’s Play
“No ball games” above a YCV mural in Benburb Street in the Village, south Belfast. The Young Citizen Volunteers formed a battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles and so part of the 36th (Ulster) Division during the first world war.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01463
Cartoon World
When not starring in their respective cartoon shows, Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants, Tom & Jerry, and Mickey & Goofy hang out together in a secret garden, entered through a portal in the wall at the entrance to the Sliabh Dubh estate. This mural was finished after the superhero murals it is next to. See previously: Wallbusters | The Walls, Unbroken
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01458
Just Can’t Get Enough
The mural above is in St. Katharine’s Road (Bóthar Chaıtríona) and was painted for the Champions League match between Cliftonville and Celtic on July 17th (2013). “Just Can’t Get Enough” is a 1981 Depeche Mode song which Celtic fans made one of their chants in 2009, soon to be followed by other teams’ fans (WP).
The St. James area was once home to Celtic Park (home of Belfast Celtic), now the site of the Park Centre, and a mural to Belfast Celtic faces this one.
Previously: The Red Army
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01457 football and athletic club 1888
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 