The Drumcree mural (2004 | 2008) is re-imaged in 2009 by this ‘Shankill A-Z’ board, designed by Lesley Cherry.
While bands get mentioned in three letters (“B” for “bands”, “D” for “drums” and “F” for “flutes”), “Unionism” is recast as “working-class ethics” and (perhaps the most striking “re-imaging”) under “X” it is claimed that the people of the lower Shankill voted for the Good Friday Agreement.
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Copyright © 2009 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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New ‘Play’ mural on Hopewell Crescent, painted by Ed Reynolds (steadyhanded.com), replacing the Can It Change? mural.
Two panels of text on the left-hand side-wall read “‘The young do not know enough to be prudent and therefore they attempt the impossible and achieve it … generation after generation’ – Pearl S Buck” and “‘Adults do not perceive children as a minority group but as helpless, inexperienced, defenseless young people who need protection … This attitude must be confronted, challenged and refuted if young people are to secure their political rights’ – Bob Franklin”
lower Shankill estate, west Belfast
Copyright © 2009
X05031 X00308 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00321 Cathal Woods
Copyright © 2013
X01569 Seosamh Mac Coılle
“I ndıl gcuımhne oglach [sic] Sean McCaughey, Gaelgoır [sic] agus muınteıor [sic] [Irish-speaker and teacher]. Fuaır sé bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann.” “Formerly of Duneden Park, Ardoyne. Died on hunger and thirst strike after 23 days in Portlaoise gaol on May 11th 1946.” “For those who believe no explanation is necessary; for those who don’t believe no explanation is possible.”
McCaughey was convicted of kidnapping and torturing IRA chief of staff Sean Hayes, who was suspected of treason. His hunger and thirst strike was preceded by five years on the blanket.
“NBCS” = North Belfast Cultural Society.
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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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2006 was the 25th anniversary of the second hunger strike, in 1981. This Ardoyne commemorative piece combines a painted border of Celtic knotwork with boards depicting scenes from 1981: a funeral volley, Derry women in blankets, women banging binlids, a masked protester throwing a Molotov cocktail at an armoured jeep, marchers outside a polling station.
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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Sean Savage, Maıréad Farrell, and Dan McCann were “Executed by the British SAS 6th March 1988.”
“Oh! Cold March winds that pierce the dark/You cry in aged tones/For souls of folk you’ve brought to God/But still you bear the moans//Oh! Weeping winds, this lonely night/My mother’s heart is sore/Oh! Lord of all, breathe freedom’s breath/That she may weep no more! – Bobby Sands Weeping Winds“
Replaces the painted board seen in 2001.
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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Sixteen year-old Glen “Spacer” Branagh was killed by a premature blast bomb during a riot on Remembrance Sunday, 2001. His portrait is on a board at the centre of UDA flags and guns (and the tigers of Tiger’s Bay (which would make it “Tigers’ Bay”).
“If the Provos and the pan nationalist front and the British and Irish governments keep trying to succeed in a united Ireland then they may prepare themselves for another 30 bloody years for the battle will have just begun.”
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Copyright © 2008 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00280 Edlingham Street
Here is a complete set of the nine panels on Blythe Street, five from the Charter Youth Club, four from the Sandy Row Womans Group [sic].
Blythe Street, Sandy Row, south Belfast
Update (2014): The Womans Group/Women’s Group panels were featured in more detail in Mr Saturday Night and Those Days Are Gone.
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Copyright © 2007 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The sporting heroes range from boxers in the Sandy Row Boxing Club to Linfield and Northern Ireland football players.
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Copyright © 2007 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The schools of Sandy Row (in the third image) are Blythefield Primary (featured in the other images), Mabel Street School, National School, Linfield Junior Public Elementary School, and Workman’s School.
Blythe Street, Sandy Row, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2007 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is an in-progress set of images of the original “Wheatfield Project” panels on the Ballysillan Road, depicting the 20th century in loyalism. The crown on the YCV symbol and the tombstones and Ulster tower have not been finished and Carson’s statue will be added to the foreground of Stormont.
Later on, an info board would replace the first two panels, and the order after it would be Ulster Day, then Carson signing the covenant, then a new double-sized panel of Fernhill House, and then the rest as above, but with the order of the Sunningdale and UWC strike panels reversed.
Ballysillan Road, north Belfast
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Copyright © 2005 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 