“Storm drain – all pain, no gain for residents”. This is perhaps a reference to the major construction project needed to provide drainage for Windsor Park and the Olympia leisure centre – see Water Projects for images of Donegall Avenue and Olympia Avenue during the work.
Tates Avenue, south Belfast
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Palestinian leader and secretary-general of Fatah during the 90s, Marwan Barghouti joined the Second Intifada (2000) and was arrested by Israeli forces in 2002 and sentenced to five life sentences for attacks by al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Barghouti laid out the rationale for the current hunger strike of 1,000 prisoners in a New York Times op-ed. He was reportedly caught eating in May.
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X04149 IRPWA havana st solidarity with palestine free the hunger strikers
Seán Ó Rıordan was aged 13 when “killed in action by British crown forces” on Cawnpore Street on 23rd March 1972 (Sutton) and he is buried in Milltown cemetery. The 1977 Protocol I of the Geneva Convention would later prohibit conscription of children younger than 15 but allow for their voluntary participation. It is thus notable that this new board to “Fıann [sic] Seán Ó Rıordan” was “erected by the family”.
Ascaıll Ard Na bhFeá/Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast.
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The UK general election takes place Thursday week (June 8th). Here are two Sınn Féın boards, both at the junction of the Falls and Glen Roads (site of the former Andersonstown police station), the first featuring the image of Michelle O’Neill and exhorting people to “register to vote now!” (Claragh chun vótáıl anoıs) and the second a quote from Gerry Adams’s oration at the graveside of Martin McGuinness: “If you want freedom, go out and take it. Organise. Mobilise. Unite for rights” (Más saoırse atá uaıt, gabh amach agus beır greım uırthı. Eagraıgh, gríosaıgh, troıd ar son do chearta.) A copy of Latuff’s Ireland-Palestine hunger-striker solidarity cartoon (which he also painted as a mural in Northumberland St) has been added to Michelle’s lapel.
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“Ourma says if you stick t’herown diet of landandairy prod you’ll be firmanna an’trim down” – a saying in which the names of all six Northern Irish counties are (phonetically) included. Above it are a variety of vintage advertisements from the late 1800s and early 1900s: Mew’s brewery (Isle of Wight), Lloyd & Yorath’s stout (Newport, Wales), Hall’s paints (Hull), Batey’s ginger beer (London), Campbell & Menzies’s shipments of Oporto wines, Gilbey’s wines, Gold Flake tobacco (in both English and Irish: Sásuíonn sıad!).
For images of the piece being produced (and in its original location), see Ciaran Gallagher’s web site. For the pieces just visible below, see Conflict Tourism and Game Of Throats.
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X04131 Alderman James McKinney, high sheriff of Belfast in 1930 gerry fitt
Here are two wide shots of a long wall from the Bangor Protestant Boys Flute Band (Fb). Many of the panels are related to WWI. For the Somme panel on the left, see Ulster Volunteers; for three of the flags on the right, see North Down Battalion. Right of centre is an emblem for the band itself: the lion and the unicorn on either side of cross rifles and the red hand of Ulster on an oval.
For the previous (mural) version, see Bangor Protestant Boys.
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Recruiting for the Ulster Volunteers in Down was so successful that it was divided into four areas (North, South, East, and West), each with a battalion, and the North down battalion comprised 15 companies (History Ireland). The Down battalions became the 13th battalion of the (108th Brigade) Royal Irish Rifles in WWI. The YCV (Young Citizen Volunteers) was formed separately (in 1912) but joined the Volunteers in May 1914, before becoming the (109th Brigade) 14th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles when the war broke out (WP). Both began their campaigns at Boulogne-Sur-Mer in October, 1915 (WP).
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X04089 owenroe dr somme thiepval beaumont hamel st quentin ypres messines arras passchendaele cambrai
This is another part of a long ‘Bangor Protestant Boys Flute Band’ wall in Kilcooley: the shield of the 36th (Ulster) Division – the Union flag and Irish harp above a red hand on a field of shamrocks – on a garland of orange poppies and WWI battlefields on a purple ribbon – orange and purple being the colours of the Ulster Volunteers.
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X04088 somme theipval messines fricourt passchendaele st. quentin ypres flanders
Here is a small board in Bangor from the North Down Defenders flute band (Fb), unusual due to the modified Ulster banner with clenched red hand in the centre. Surrounding it are the flags of the LPA, UDA, UFF, and UYM.
Kearney Gardens, Kilcooley, Bangor
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X04085 est 2004 quis separabit
Teenagers at Dundonald High “dream, believe, achieve” success on a par with their “Ballybeen sporting hero[e]s”, such as IBO super bantamweight boxer John Lowey and footballers Noel Brotherson (Blackburn Rovers), Glenn “Spike” Ferguson (Glenavon and Linfield), and Chris Walker (Glentoran).
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 