The gate and peace line at the eastern end of Cupar Way. The boards are on the republican side, on North Howard Street, encouraging interaction between Catholics and Protestants: “There’s more in common … than what divides us.”
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00751 there’s more in common than what divides us, divis youth project glencairn
éırígí stencil-on-boards on Northumberland St. & Divis St. in sharp contrast to the advertising hoardings above.
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00749 130,000 out of work, 1 in 5 children live in poverty, stormont isn’t working!!
For the 40th anniversary, a painted shopfront and plaques to the victims of the McGurk’s Bar Bombing were added last December (2011) to the Celtic Cross and plaque already at the site. The text on the info board to the right is ad follows: “At 8.48 pm on Saturday 4th December 1971, a no-warning bomb, planted by British terrorists, exploded on the doorstep of family-run McGurk’s Bar. Fifteen innocent men, women and children perished. Those who were not crushed or slowly asphyxiated by masonry where [sic] horrifically burned to death when shattered gas mains burst into flames beneath the rubble. Nearly the same again were dragged from the debris alive. In the aftermath of the atrocity, the British and Unionist Governments, RUC police force and British military disseminated disinformation that the bomb was in-transit and that the innocent civilians were guilty by association, if not complicit in this act of terrorism. This is despite a mountain of forensic evidence and a witness who saw the bomb being planted and lit before watching the British terrorists escape into the night. From the moment the bomb exploded, and for 40 years since, the families and friends of those murdered have campaigned constitutionally and with great dignity to clear the names of their loved ones. It is a Campaign for Truth that continues to this day. Join us at www.themcgurksbar.com.”
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Biographical plaques have been added to the Covenant board on N Howard St (Argyle Centre).
For a straight-on shot of the board, without plaques, see We Perish If We Yield.
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00737 N Howard St
All of these images are of different parts of the Somme memorial next to the Shankill graveyard. There is an opening in the graveyard boundary wall which leads into the Somme memorial garden. The Mountainview Tavern, which featured several times during the troubles, can be seen behind the memorial, as well as the spire of St. Matthew’s Church.
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00716 X00725 X00717 X00718 1st shankill somme 36th ulster division this memorial was erected by the office bearers and members of the 1st shankill somme association it is dedicated in solemn but glorious memory to those brave and gallant men from the greater shankill who served with the 36th (ulster) division and were immortalised on the fields of france and flanders during the great war 1914-1918, lest we forget, 1st july 1916, it stands also as a tribute to the men and women of the greater shankill, who in the many conflicts which followed the great war, fought with courage and defiance for crown and country and made the ultimate sacrifice ‘at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them;
oh you who sleep in flanders fields sleep sweet to rise anew we caught the torch you threw and holding high we keep the faith with all who died, we cherish too the poppy red that grows on fields were valour led, it seems to signal to the skies that blood of heroes never dies but lends a lustre to the red of the flower that blooms above the dead in flanders fields, and now the torch and poppy red we wear in honour of our dead fear not that ye have died for naught we’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought in flanders fields carson inspects local volunteers at fernhill house glencairn 36th ulster division, ulster volunteer force, the 2nd west belfast battalion
The nameplate on the lower corner of Northland Street now reads “Thiepval Street” and the Thiepval board above adorns the end wall (replacing an earlier mural to UVF A Company 5th platoon; the stone shown below, although not present in 2006, perhaps belongs to the era of the previous mural). On the other side of Conway Street is/was North Howard Walk where a plate now reads “Passchendaele Court“. It’s not clear whether the names have been changed officially or not. The names are unofficial (as of November 15th, 2012). In the New Lodge earlier this year (April-May, 2012), Fishers Court became McGurk’s Way (U.tv | BBC-NI).
Close-ups of the board and the stones below …
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00731 X00734 X00732 X00736 u.v.f. when the last war is waged and the last post is played when the last boy is laid and the last prayer is said when the last mother cries and the last tear drop dries when the son is gone we’ll now remember the somme. this stone is dedicated to the memory of the fallen volunteers of no. 5 platoon, a company 1st belfast battalion, ulster volunteer force, as poppy petals gently fall remember us who gave our all not in the mud of foreign lands nor buried in the desert sands, in ulster field and farm and town fermanagh’s lanes and drumlin’d down we died that violent death should cease and ulstermen might live in peace; for god and ulster, lest we forget, “I am not an ulsterman but yesterday 1st. july as I followed their amazing attack i felt that i would rather be an ulsterman than anything else in the world” captian [captain] wilfred [wilfrid] spender – the somme, in proud and loving memory of our fallen charge from thiepval wood 1916, sir edward carson, 36th ulster division
As you walk along Conway Street from the Shankill Road, these three boards recalling the Balmoral Review are to be seen on either side of the road. On April 9th (Easter Tuesday), 1912, 100,000 unionists rallied in Balmoral show grounds for review by Bonar Law, the head of the Conservative party – here is a postcard of the Wicklow contingent. The 2012 commemoration drew about 10,000 people to Ormeau Park (Slugger). A gable-sized tarp was mounted on Lawnbrook Street on the Shankill Road – see M08226.
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00728 X00727 X00729 the balmoral review edward carson, frederick crawford, thomas sinclair, james craig 1912, 100 years, 2012, en route to, addressing, crowds at balmoral
Summer 2012 saw a number of major events, including Euro2012, the Olympics, Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, and planning by the Unionist Centenary Committee – all featured on a promotional board over the Cambrai Street courtyard of the Mountainview Tavern.
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Today’s plan is already yesterday’s – the streets that were there are gone”. Euphemistic nonsense on a giant hoarding on Castle Street in the city centre, fronting a building site. In keeping with the theme of easy erasure of the past, the words “love joy peace” have been removed from the original 1955 photograph (Belfast Live | X05827).
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00698 X00699 today’s plan is already yesterday’s – the streets that were there are gone, smithfield ward west electoral area
This long board for “International Peace Day – 21st September” sits between the security gates on Northumberland Street (Visual History) and bridges images of the Shankill (on the left) and images of the Falls (on the right) with sunflowers and a quote from Martin Luther King (and a mosaic of additional photos): “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality [tied in a single garment of destiny]. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly” (Letter From A Birmingham Jail. As always with murals of this type, all of the photographs are of the two areas in yesteryear – no mention of the Troubles. Organised by Springboard Opportunities (web), with support from the Shankill history group, the Gaeltacht Quarter, and the Ireland Funds.
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 