“North Belfast will never accept a border in the Irish Sea – there is no union without NI.” The Sun shines on a flag from Shore Road Loyal Rangers Supporters Club (Fb) and a board protesting the NI Protocol – Rangers are triumphant but the union is in peril.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08017 Northwood Rd
Rangers’s season doesn’t end until May 15th but they have already clinched the Scottish League title. This gives their fans plenty of time to celebrate. This display is from Glenbryn. See previously: F*ck Your Ten In A Row | Respect, Heritage, Culture.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08023
Máirtín Ó Dochartaigh, one of the founders of Club Óıge Mhachaıre Botháın in 2001, died in 2011. The club was renamed in his honour in ?2020? as Cumann Óıge Uí Dhochartaıgh (Fb | ig) (An Phoblacht). The mural, bearing the original name of the club, dates back to 2012.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07826 X07824 X07825 oldpark rd
“For a united working class”. Football Lads And Lasses (Fb | web) is an organisation headed by former football hooligans against fascism and racism (BBC video). There are different stickers for dozens of English soccer clubs; this West Ham one has found itself on a light-pole on the Antrim Road in Belfast. Above it is a Lasaır Dhearg (web) sticker decrying imperialism as the cause of climate change.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
X08573
Glasgow Celtic stickers on Divis Street, Glasgow Rangers sticker on the Shankill. We can’t really improve upon the WP entry‘s introduction: “the rivalry between [the two teams] has become deeply embedded in Scottish culture. It has reflected, and contributed to, political, social, and religious division and sectarianism in Scotland. As a result, the fixture has had an enduring appeal around the world.” – including Northern Ireland.
See previously: Ultras Celtic | Balance Enquiry
A Matter Of Life And Death | Follow, Follow | The Boys In Blue | We Are The People
Also Gegen Rechts
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07753 X07575
“By night and by day, I ever, ever pray/While lonely my life flows on/To see our flag unfurled/And my true love [to] enfold/In the valley of Slievenamon.” The lyrics are the final lines of The Valley Of Slievenamon, written by Charles J Kickham “fenian, IRB, poet, novelist, author” and much loved in Tipperary. The heroic hurler, however, is Cú Chulainn (rather than the midlands’ Fıonn Mac Cumhaıll). Ardoyne Gaelic games club Cıceam Ard Eoın (tw | Fb) was founded in 1907, 25 years after Kickham’s death.
See previously: (2008) Ard Eoın Kickhams | (2015) The Heart Of Our Community one | two. Also Stronger Together.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07644 X07641 X07642 X07643 X07646 X07647 X07645
East Belfast GAA (tw | Fb) was set up at the end of May, with Linda Ervine as club president (video | Irish Times). The ladies football team recorded the club’s first win, on August 16th, with the hurlers winning on September 3rd, and the camógs on September 19th. The emblem (here shown in somewhat blurred stitching) includes a (black) Ulster hand flanked by shamrock and thistle, over Samson and Goliath (the Harland & Wolff cranes) and “together” as Gaeılge, in English, and in Ulstèr-Scots.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07598 X07597
“Rangers ICF [Inter City Firm – football ultras] supports our troops, particularly those who might be accused of crimes on “Bloody Sunday 1972”. The flags are hanging outside Bar Berlin, home of the Berlin Loyal RSC (tw).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07813
“Glentoran FC. Pride of Ulster.” Two examples from the Glentoran sticker campaign in the early months of the year, before coronavirus put and end to the season and the players on furlough. See previously Le Coq Sportif.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07207 X07205 X07206 albertbridge rd smiths
Still in the window of Harland House (Templemore Avenue, east Belfast) two years after the World Cup, Union Flag and IFA bunting and a ‘Deutschland’ scarf. NI did not qualify, Germany did not make it to the knock-out stage, and England lost to Croatia in the semis.
It’s not known what the connection to Edward Harland (of Harland & Wolff) is – please get in touch.
Click image again to enlarge
Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X07210
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 