Symbols of loyalism and unionism in Hopewell Avenue and Crescent during marching season.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15180 X15179
Loyalist Lower Shankill
Broken Homes And Hearts
“62 houses to be demolished in the estate – broken home + hearts”, “Defective concrete homeowners deserve equality not exclusions – 100% redress”, “House + mental health is crumbling”. The houses are crumbling because of excess mica in the concrete. For background, see 2021’s 100% Redress No Less and Think Outdoor This Summer.
On the R245 (Bridge End/Ramelton Rd) just above Ramelton, Co Donegal.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
X15359 X15360 X15361 X15362 X15363
You Are Now Entering The European Court Of Justice
The long-running extradition case against Seán Walsh – from the republic to the north – took another twist in March when the supreme court referred his case to the European Court Of Justice. Walsh is wanted on charges of New IRA membership, based on surveillance of meetings organised by MI5 agent Dennis McFadden (Herald). The point now at issue is whether a 2021 UK law on sentencing for those convicted of terrorism charges (pdf) – no early release is possible (gov.uk) – contravenes article seven of the European Convention On Human Rights.
Republicans also claim that he would be subject to maltreatment if extradited (RN).
A write-up of the arguments can be found in this Irish Times article from 2023, when the possibility of referral was first mooted by Walsh’s legal team.
The black shamrock in the centre of the wall pre-dates the Walsh graffiti – see Black Shamrock for its significance. Free Derry Corner has its own Visual History page.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
X15163 X15164 X15165 X15166 X15162
Love The Arts
Love Hearts turn 70 years old in 2024 – they were originally included in crackers for the Christmas season in 1954. Over the years, the messages on them have changed, and various specialty versions have been produced, including for Prince William’s 21st (in 2003) and a recent collaboration with YoungMinds with affirmative messages (Swizzels | WP). The messages on these “Love tHeArts” – imagined by FGB (ig) in North Street, Belfast city centre – are perhaps less “Marry me” and “Be mine” and more “Fund me” and “Follow me on Instagram”.
See also Eat To The Beat for another Swizzels sweet – the drumstick – by FGB.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15601
Leader Of The Band
Jayden Braniff passed away in August in 2023 (Fb) from neuroblastoma. He was made an honorary member of the Pride Of Ballymacash (Lisburn) flute band (Fb). He is remembered by the Pride Of Ardoyne (Fb) and the Shankill Protestant Boys (Fb) in a tarp in Lawnbrook Avenue (upper Shankill, Belfast), next to the Walter Smith/Rangers tarp (one | two) and near his father’s house (Funeral Times).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15150
The Shankill Arch 2024
“This arch was erected in memory of Bro. William (Belter) Bell, LOL 633. It has been kindly donated by the Bell family circle. 14th June 2024”
Speeches at the launch (youtube) note that the arch was not displayed during the Troubles (News Letter (paywall) says mid-60s), and was stored on the roofs of nearby shops for the sixty years since. Businessman Ian Bell (of video gaming companies Slightly Mad (WP | Belfast Live) and Straight4) is also specified as the main sponsor of the arch’s restoration, in memory of his father, who died on June 7th, 2008.
See also: the arch in Denmark Street (lower Shankill) in 2022 and 2023.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15143 X15137 X15138
X15135 X15142 X15141 [X15136] X15139
X15140
City Paints
Derry’s ‘Get Up’ graffiti and street art festival took place at the end of June – here is the Strand Road hoarding sprayed by NOYS (ig), POSEA (ig), VENTS (ig), RAZER (ig), Chose Letters (ig) and perhaps others, with support from Peaball (web) and Foyle Maritime (web), as well as City Paints (Fb) and Crown paints.
For the street art pieces from Clarendon Street, see Get Up, Derry.
For the same hoarding in 2023, see Crash Bandicoot, and in 2022, see Some Buzz.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
X15157 X15158 X15159 X15160 X15161 X15156
Gaining Altitude
A new painting of Amelia Earhart has been created by JEKS (ig), on the side of the Foyle building, North West Regional College, on Queen’s Quay. A number of sources claim without citation or measurement that it is the tallest piece of street art in the north – both the BBC and the Chamber Of Commerce use the passive “thought to be”. Its closest competitor would be the recent piece by Zabou on the Telegraph Building in Belfast – see Broken Promises.
The Foyle Building has six “levels” (NWRC) while the original Telegraph Building had four storeys (Archiseek). In addition to comparing images of the two paintings, you can also judge by comparing Street View images of the buildings: Derry vs Belfast.
Information about Earhart’s connection to the Maiden City can be found in the entries on the printed board (But What Do Dreams Know Of Boundaries?) and the mosaic (Flying Solo) to Earhart in Derry.
JEKS did eventually fill in the hair (and so cover over his instagram handle) on the lower portrait.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
X15131 X15132 X15133 X15134 get up derry
Women Carry The People
Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen’s (web | ig) second piece in Belfast is in Palestine Street in the Holylands of south Belfast, where he worked with Artists Against Genocide (ig) to produce a piece showing the strength of Palestinian women, carrying the land from which Palestinians have been evicted in the Nakba of 1948.
For the first piece, in Kent Street in the city centre, see Anatomy Of Oppression. A third piece was painted in Crocus Street, in west Belfast: see Life Finds A Way in the Paddy Duffy collection.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15124 X15123 X15126 X15125
I Will Plant Them, That They May Dwell In A Place Of Their Own
The two passages cited here have been cited before on the side wall at the junction of the Limestone Road and N Queen St, with images of Orange symbols and Union Flags, in order to promise that Your Kingdom Will Endure Forever. That theme has now been invoked in upper Tiger’s Bay, to celebrate the latest king (Charles III) of the everlasting kingdom demarcated by the shields of the “four nations” in the corners of the main gable, Northern Ireland included.
The people in question in the second book of Samuel are the people of Israel but as with previous scriptural references on the lower wall (Lamentations | Chronicles | Revelations | Psalms | Genesis), the Protestant people in Ireland and Britain are under discussion (though they might also refer to contemporary Israel).
In the King James version, 2 Samuel 7:10-16 the prophet Nathan is speaking to David: “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.”
In Luke 1:31-33, an angel is speaking to Mary: “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X15122 [X15121]
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 