The road to equality is long and winding and goes through Andersonstown’s Derrin Pass. The junction is full of small board depicting Gaelic games, Irish culture, and landscape drawings, as well as exhortations towards equality — see the corresponding entry in the Peter Moloney Collection.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X02398 X02399 X02400
Cairns & Co. Ltd were not only “Manufacturing and export chemists” but (according to the 1908 street directory) “Aerated and mineral water manufacturers” with works at “Balmoral Springs, Lisburn Road”.
This post is the fifth and final board on Donegall Road. In order of the wide shot, below, the five are: RIC At Celtic Park | Ruby Murray | Ronnie Adams | Broadway United FC | Cairns & Co. Ltd
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03181 X03186 local workers
Information on-line is scarce concerning Broadway United FC. They might have been an intermediate team but are said to have won the junior Irish Cup in 1912 — the date of the image above in which the team poses with its trophies — beating Black Watch FC 1–0.
Liverpool’s longest serving player, goalkeeper Elisha Scott (WP), began his career at Broadway United, playing there for two years before making 402 appearances at Anfield and then going to Belfast Celtic as player and manager. The Irish Times has a profile of Elisha and his brother Billy, goalkeeper at Everton. (Thanks to John Duffin for these links.)
Donegall Road, Village, south Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03182 donegall rd
Ronnie Adams was born in Belfast in 1916. He began driving at age 11 and rallying at age 18. He is shown above in a Jaguar Mk. VII, en route to winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1956, which was also around the time that he took over the family textile business from his deceased father — Adams remained an amateur driver his whole life.
For more on Adams, see Adams’s Telegraph obituary and this article by Steve McKelvie. For information on the Jaguars of the 1950s (and an image of Adams with the five trophies he received for winning the Monte Carlo), see the Irish Jaguar & Daimler club.
Donegall Road, Village, south Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03183 adelaide street prince rainier cup
The image above shows three members of the Royal Irish Constabulary outside Belfast’s Celtic Park in 1912. The event is perhaps a visit by Lord Pirrie, Winston Churchill, and John Redmond to speak in favour of the Home Rule bill at a meeting of the Ulster Liberal Association on February 8th. (You can see at ticket for the event at Decade Of Centenaries.) The meeting was originally to be held in the Ulster Hall, but this was blockaded by Unionist protesters (Irish History). According to one site, Churchill was “nearly lynched” by angry Protestants outside the grounds.
Donegall Road, Village, south Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03185 donegall rd
The memorial garden in Mount Vernon, which previously had and Ulster Volunteers mural and UVF stone has undergone a major redevelopment this year with a new “cut-out” mural to the 36th (Ulster) Division and memorial plaques to six UVF members who died between 1974 and 2000, including (in the second image) Joe Shaw, who was shot by the UDA during the 1974-1975 feud. (For details of the killings and its aftermath, see this Balaclava Street article.) See the final image, below, for the plaque on the outside wall of the garden listing all six members.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03109 X03108 X03110 [X09891] X09892 X09893 X09898 X09897 X09896 X09895 Joe Shaw 18-5-1974 Samuel Frame 13-3-1976 Jackie Irvine 16-3-1989 Colin Caldwell 28-11-1991 Bertie Rice 31-10-2000 Mark Quail 1-11-2000 murdered in the service of ulster we salute also all volunteers at home and on the mainland who served with dignity and pride 3rd battalion north belfast ulster volunteer force lest we forget ulster defence association the great war soldiers marching profile we will remember them 1914-1918
In this modified ‘School’ safety sign in the lower Shankill estate, a mother and child with collarettes go to school, under the watchful eye of UFF, UYM, and UDA boards on the gable wall behind it. (In 2000, a board reading “Drumcree” was placed over “School”. See J0585)
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03120 X03119 X03118 terrae filius quis separabit UFF 73 ulster defence force young militants freedom fighters
Tourists from France, Japan, Israel, Germany, Italy, China, Spain and Croatia are welcomed to Boyd’s shop in the Lower Shankill estate.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03102 X03117 newsagents confectionery groceries hot drinks sandwiches greeting cards Welcome bienvenue yokoso shalom wilkommen benvenuto huan ying bienvenido dobrodosli
The South Belfast UDA this week issued a statement that they “won’t be leaving any stage whilst republicans of any faction still exist”. As the Newsletter article notes, the South Belfast branch of the UDA does not speak for the whole organization. Until confirmed, then, the new mural above – “Welcome to the loyalist Lower Shankill – UDA 2nd Batt. C. Coy” – provides only circumstantial evidence …
Elsewhere: Join the South East Antrim UDA: Glenfield Community Association.
Update (2015-10-16): Similar statement from “IRA commanders” BelfastLive | Irish Mirror
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
quis separabit UFF UYM X03089
The quote on this new board in the Lower Shankill estate – “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” – is attributed to “Margaret Mead, American Author 1901-1978”. Mead in fact was best known as an anthropologist and in particular for her study of adolescent coming-of-age in the islands of Samoa which concluded that adolescence there was not at all the stressful and confused period that it was Western teens.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2015 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03076 X03077 [X12019] The campaign against social exclusion group CASE created this artwork using themes of social justice to highlight how a group of residents by standing together can create real change within their area for the benefit of all residents the quote was written by the american author margaret mead and reflects what the residents aspire to within their community artist lesley cherry worked with case during this project drawing out their concerns hopes and fears for the future and how this statement can relate to similar communities not only in northern ireland but at an international level funded by the housing executive working in partnership with the lower shankill community association replaces several contentious paramilitary murals removed during the redevelopment of the shankill estate
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 