“Say ‘No’ to Irish Sea border.” The graffiti and placards have tapered off as the DUP’s rejection of Brexit’s NI Protocol – and the later Windsor Framework and its “Stormont brake” – and refusal to take their seats in Stormont approaches 18 months (Bel Tel | Reuters | Belfast Live). A poll from Queen’s last week found 61% in favor of the trading agreements (BelTel).
This piece of anti-Protocol graffiti is still rolling in New Mossley.
“Why did you do it? Have you not the guts to say?” The question is for David Holden, who in 1988 was an 18-year-old Grenadier Guardsman, manning a checkpoint in Aughnacloy, Co. Tyrone. On February 21st, Holden shot Aidan McAnespie as he was walking to the nearby GAA club. Holden was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence (BBC | Belfast Live) and was sentenced in February to three years, suspended for three years. The family expressed disappointment, saying that Holden did give a clear account of what happened nor express remorse (Sky News | Journal). Holden has now decided to appeal his conviction (BBC | RTÉ).
The lark in barbed wire is used here not as a symbol of political prisoners but of the struggle for justice in the UK system. (See the Visual History page on the lark and the dove.)
“Merry Christmas, yis cunts yis” – happy holidays from Belfast city centre. Stan Carey from the blog Strong Language suggests the name “pronominal split reduplication” for the repeated “yis”.
After much delay and finger-pointing (BelTel | Belfast Live) – and this complaint from east Belfast graffitist Hallion – details were published yesterday (December 30th) about how people will receive a £600 pound direct debit (or a voucher redeemable at the Post Office) to help with energy bills (uk.gov). The £600 comprises £400 from the Energy Bills Support Scheme (approved back in April, 2022 – uk.gov) and a £200 “Alternative Fuel Payment” (announced in August – uk.gov). The £200 AFP is due to the high percentage of homes using home-heating oil in Northern Ireland as compared with Britain (Belfast Live).
“Where is our 400 600 quid? Cost of living, innit. – Hallion2″
Here is a second set of images showing the “peace or protocol” poster that has appeared in PUL areas in the city, three in east Belfast – along the Newtownards Road. Two others in north Belfast were seen previously in A Return To Violence, which also explains the poster.
Agriculture minister Edwin Poots’s directive to stop checks on goods coming from Britain to Northern Ireland – which did not come into practical effect – was struck down on Friday, and reverting the policy to what it was under the NI Protocol and Brexit deals. The High Court judge who handed down the decision did so on the grounds that Poots’s directive was politically motivated (BBC) – in other words, it was taken as part of the DUP’s opposition to the Protocol, which next (in February, 2022) involved collapsing the executive.
Sales from GB to NI increased 7% (about 1 billion pounds in value) in the year after the Protocol came into effect (BBC | BelTel) but money isn’t everything (the “erosion of our identity” is “non-negotiable“) and protests persist, offering the bargain of “the peace” (i.e. the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement) or “the proticol”. Efforts continue by the UK government to reach a new deal with the EU and/or to pass a bill allowing unilateral changes (News Letter).
The buildings on North Street above the art deco Bank Of Ireland building – including a former home (called The Loft) of the artists’ collective now known as The Vault– were razed in 2017. Since then, the hoarding around the site has been a site for street art and graffiti art, most recently a series of Clash Street Kids pieces (inspired by the ‘Bash Street Kids’) by the TMN krew. The plan for the location is now to produce (for 100 million pounds) a building housing a multi-media presentation of the results of an “unparalleled programme of story collection” (Belfast City Council) that will be attractive to an anticipated 1.8 million annual visitors (Architects’ Journal).
For the street art in the background, see Belfast Deco.
The Seymour Hill WWII mural will be 14 years old this coming July (2023) but it is hanging on fairly well. It is quite faded – especially the parachutes at the top – but there is no graffiti on the wall itself, only on the wall below it. For the mural when new and information about the US camp and portrait of Colditz prisoner William Harbinson, see M04776.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 