cultural – Page 18 – Seosamh Mac Coille Collection

Angels And Faces

2021-03-282026-08-24Extramural Activity1 Comment

Street artist Emic (web | tw) was commissioned by Up! Culture And Arts (and SASH and the Shankill Somme Association) to produce a series of large portraits – based on photographs from the time – of soldiers from the Shankill who fought in WWI, including brothers William and James McKendry, and Richard Mussen, son of the Richard Mussen whose funeral cortège is painted as a mural lower down the Shankill. The portraits were placed in the Shankill and West Kirk graveyards (the West Kirk photographs include poppies). On March 16th, the photographs were lit up and an ‘Angel Of Mons’ was projected onto the Spectrum Centre (Up! Fb).

Video from the Somme Association set to The Bloody Road To The Somme.

Also from the Shankill graveyard: Somme Memorial; and from the graveyard: Queen Of Ireland, Empress Of India | Interment | The Great War

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Welcome To The Ulster Rangers

2021-03-262026-08-24Extramural Activity1 Comment

The home of the Ulster Rangers supporters club (Fb) is on the Shankill below Tennent Street. The club has plenty to celebrate this spring, as Rangers are Scottish league champions this year, for the 55th time in club history – see F*ck Your Ten In A Row | We’re Back | Respect Heritage Culture.

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Respect, Heritage, Culture

2021-03-262026-08-24Extramural Activity2 Comments

This year – 2021 – is the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland and the year in which Scottish football club Glasgow Rangers won their 55th league title. Support for the club is widespread among the PUL community in Northern Ireland; local soccer and the international team is overseen by the IFA.

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For Twinbrook

2021-03-252026-08-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

In 2019, images of Bobby Sands before his (second and final) arrest and imprisonment were rediscovered in the collection of French photographer Gérard Harlay. Sands was serving as a flag-bearer in an August 1976 march from the Busy Bee to Dunville Park to protest the withdrawal of political status. (For some of Harlay’s images, see Bobby Sands Trust.) This new mural in his home area of Twinbrook copies one of the images (though presents him as carrying a Tricolour rather than a harp) along with protesters protesting for “Public transport for Twinbrook now” and “Social housing for Twinbrook now”.

We’re Back

2021-03-242026-08-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

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.

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Men Of Iron

2021-03-202026-08-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

‘Men Of Iron’ is the name of a 1922 William Conor painting, showing shipyard workers in the shadow of a great ship (you can see it at ArtUK). The painter himself was rendered in bronze (by sculptor Holger Lönze) and stands on the Shankill at the corner with Northumberland Street.

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Always Remember

2021-03-132026-08-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Sandy Row Marching Band Supplies (Fb) has this Somme commemoration flag in a number of variations (“South Belfast”, “Loyal Carrick”, etc). Perhaps the “West Belfast” version has sold out, as this “North Belfast” flag is actually flying along Cupar Way in the middle Shankill.

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Portadown True Blues

2021-03-052026-08-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This time last year, Portadown True Blues flute band (Fb) was preparing for a trip to Toronto, Canada, for an international celebration of the Twelfth (News Letter) but it was cancelled on account of the pandemic. This blue board was an update of their long-standing purple mural in Edgarstown next to the Somme mural, also featured below (and previously in In Answer To The Echo Of Alarm.

Babes In The Wood

2021-02-242026-08-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Babies’ bottles and “dummies” (pacifiers) hang from a tree in the middle of Musgrave Park, next to St Brigid’s GAC pitches, perhaps because Brigid is patron saint of babies, children, and midwives (as well as brewers and poultry farmers) (WP).

1st Shankill Somme Association

2021-02-092026-08-24Extramural Activity1 Comment

The Shankill Somme association (Fb) uses the Ulster Tower in Thiepval, France, as its emblem. The association celebrated its 20th anniversary last February (2020) with a parade (gallery of images).

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