painted wall

James Magennis

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2013-05-20 TullMagennis+

Victoria Cross recipient James Magennis was the only person from Northern Ireland awarded the VC for action during WWII (WP). Although the mural is in loyalist Tullycarnet, Magennis was a Catholic, born in west Belfast, though he later lived in Castlereagh.

A memorial to Magennis can be found in the grounds of City Hall (National Maritime Museum).

The mural replaces the Tullycarnet version of Eddie The Trooper (see Eddie’s Visual History page).

Previously: Edward Bingham, WWI VC recipient

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01106 Kings Road born 1919 died 1986 mcginnes

Many Did Not Return

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2013-05-19 15thBatt+

This mural and memorial in Rathcoole commemorates soldiers from the north Belfast area who went to France in 1915 as part of the 15th (North Belfast) Royal Irish Rifles, and in particular the five whose faces appear in the apex of the mural: Magookin, La Harpur, Forrester, Baird and Templeton.

The information board is reproduced below.

2013-05-19 15thBattInfo+

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01098 X01099

On Her Their Lives Depend

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2013-05-19 OnHerTheirLives+

Women Munition Workers during the First World War are celebrated in this 2011 mural on Inniscarn/Iniscarn Drive in Rathcoole. A ‘Canary Girl’ readies for work as a TNT shell maker. The term stems from the fact that TNT can turn the skin a yellow-orange colour.

The recruitment poster on which the mural is based is shown below. British Pathé has some footage of women working in a munitions factory, presumably in England somewhere. BBC has a page on a massive explosion at the Chilwell (Nottingham) factory. An image of workers amongst shells in 1915 can be seen at http://smnmcshannon.hubpages.com/.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01100

The Courage And Sacrifice Of The Hunger Strikers

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The Clowney Street phoenix, which dates back to 1981 (see The Oldest Murals), has been repainted, and above, the blanketmen painting (see 1981-2011) has been replaced with a montage of photographs from the period, including prisoners on the blanket and dirty protest, the funeral of Sands and of McDonnell, and three pieces of graffiti: “Thirty thousands can’t be wrong” (Sands’s election to Westminster), “Bobby Sands murdered 1.17 am 5th May 1981”, and “My position is in total contrast to that of an ordinary prisoner. I am a political prisoner.”

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X05274

The Ulster Connection

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2013-05-09 RangersConnection+

A mural in east Belfast listing local players who have played for Rangers, in Glasgow, Scotland. Featured in the centre is S. English, who scored 72 goals in 81 appearances, including 44 in the 1931-1932 season. Additional player plaques have been added since 2008, as well as the dedication in the lower right corner: “In memory of Moses McNeill, a teenage boy of Ulster-Scots stock & his brothers and friends who in 1872 formed a football team in Glasgow that today is known around the world as the Rangers Football Club “.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01089 we are the people in memory of moses mcneil a teenage boy of ulster-scots stock & his brothers and friends who in 1872 formed a football team in Glasgow that today is known around the world as the rangers football club, 50 title