cultural

One Million People Buried Here

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“When the name is called by the one above/Their troubles at once did cease/Like the people who went there before them/I prey they will rest in peace.” The words of Shankill man Albert Haslett are used on a Daniella Balmaverde mosaic commemorating the dead buried in Shankill graveyard. The full poem can be found at Belfast Experience, which claims that the number of burials is about half a million. NVTv has a interview program with Haslett, who died in January of last year (2017) – photos and remembrance at Shankill Area Social History group.

Previously from the graveyard: Queen Of Ireland, Empress Of India | Watch-House | WWI Dead

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Shaftesbury Fringe

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The Accidental Theatre Company (web | Fb) is an experimental theatre company that has taken over 12-13 Shaftesbury Square for the time being. Before Christmas they put on a Michelle & Arlene Holiday Special, with the two political leaders on the run from their self-imposed isolation (review by Alan In Belfast) but still trying to do a deal. The mural above is in the style of another holiday odd-couple road tale, the 1987 film Planes, Trains And Automobiles. Along with theatre duo Amadan, they are “keeping Belfast weird” – artwork by Verz (Fb), below.

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Crom Abú

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O’Donovan Rossa GAC (web | Fb) dates back to 1916, just one year after the death of republican Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa (at whose funeral Padraig Pearse gave the oration – “The fools, the fools …”). “Crom abú” is a war-cry of the ancient FitzGeralds as they attacked the O’Donovan fortress at Crom, Co. Limerick. Some of those fleeing eventually settled in Rosscarbery, Co. Cork, which is where Jeremiah was born in 1831. The sword is a symbol of justice, the snake of wisdom.

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No Such Thing As Failure

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“There is no such thing as failure, just different levels of success – Terry Óg Enright.” The Terry Enright Foundation was set up in April 2002 in tribute to the cross-community and youth worker who was killed in a sectarian attack in 1998 (see Páırc Mhıc Ionnrachtaıgh). Its emblem is a kayaker, as the Foundation includes the opportunity for Level I and II certificates in kayaking in its Youth Leadership programme.

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Páırc Mhıc Ionnrachtaıgh

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Gort Na Móna (Fb) play their home games at Páırc Mhıc Ionnrachtaıgh/Enright Park, named after the local Enright clan and in particular Terry Óg, who was killed by the LVF in January 1998 as he was working as a doorman at Space nightclub (Independent | Irish Times). In addition to football and hurling, he was a boxer, Irish dancer, and – as will be seen in the other mural to his memory – a lover of the outdoors.

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The Somme 1st July 1916

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The Young Citizen Volunteers began as a civic organisation and domestic reserve force in 1912 but by the time of the first World War had become a battalion of the Ulster Volunteers and went to the Western Front as the fourteenth battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, part of the 36th (Ulster) Division, landing at Boulogne in October, 1915. The force was mainly Protestant but History Hub Ulster has a page on the 42 Ulster Catholics who served in the 14th (YCV) RIR.

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Big Henry

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Gareth “Big Henry” Morrison was a drummer in the Ulster First Flute band in Sandy Row and a Rangers supporter. He died at age 26 on June 23rd, 2013 from a dose of PMA (BelTel), one of eight such deaths in Northern Ireland and seven in western Scotland. (1997 image of a UFFB mural in Linfield Road.)

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Que Sera Sera

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Ross Wilson’s statue ‘Mother – Daughter – Sister’ was launched in 2015 (Art Council NI), two years after his King William mural which towers over it (see final image). “This sculpture celebrates the female cultural identity of Sandy Row and the generational contribution women have made to this community both in the family and workplace.” With a verse from the Doris Day song ‘Que Sera Sera’ from Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much.

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Hoops, Stripes, Rings

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Lisburn boxer James “The Assassin” Tennyson, current Irish super-featherweight champion, (BoxRec | tw) provides the centre-piece between soccer and gaelic games in this Glenbawn mural: on the left, the Celtic Boys Club (web), established 1983) and Gaelic games club Seán Uí Mhistéil (web | Fb) originally formed in the New Lodge in 1899.

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