These are images of people collecting for Andy Allen Veterans Support (web) on the Shankill, Belfast. At its peak (in 1973) the UDR had more than 9,000 personnel (Statista). The UDR was amalgamated into the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992 and a 2005 estimate put the number of its veterans at about 58,000 (Veterans Services NI).
The title of the post comes from a UDR memorial in Carrickfergus.
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The WHO and UNRWA now estimates that of the 34,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, about 14,000 were children (Egypt Today). 18 were killed in a single explosion in Rafah yesterday (AP). This new board in west Belfast illustrates the disparity between Israeli forces and ordinary Palestinians by showing children in ragged clothing armed only with a single, odd-looking (AI hallucinated?), slingshot facing off against other children armed with assault rifles and wearing riot gear.
Of the RNU social-media handles along the bottom, only the Facebook and TikTok ones actually work.
Previously, from 2018: RNU Stands With Palestine.
Northumberland Street, west Belfast; later with a knotwork surround – see T08102.
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This is a west Belfast instance of INLA graffiti – seen previously in Derry (Saoırse Go Deo) – celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the group’s founding, in December, 1974.
The Lasaır Dhearg (web) stencils go back to 2020; see Britain’s Occupation Of Ireland.
Waterford St, west Belfast, replacing Israel Get Out Of Palestine.
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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This new three-storey mural by Dee Craig (Fb) is at the city end of Newtownards Road and so serves as a highly-visible introduction to east Belfast. People arriving in the area are now greeted with a vintage image of a smiling bearded man in a cloth cap, surrounded by occupations from the industrial era: “Cobbler, rag’n’bone man, fish monger, welder, builder, sweep, carpenter, window cleaner, butcher”, capped off by an inspirational “Be your best”, with yellow highlights that match the colour of the shipyard cranes Samson and Goliath (see the third image).
In being overshadowed by the mural, the “Let’s Twist Again” sculpture on the plaza in front of the business centre now becomes a symbol of east Belfast rather than the symbol. It too features east Belfast’s “industrial past” (BelTel), using rope as a metaphor for community: “By being bound together in a common cause, the natural tendency for each twist, fibre, yarn, and strand to separate, only serves to make the rope stronger.”
On the wall behind the sculpture and below the mural is one of the Eastside Lives Heritage Trail (pdf) figures, Jane Scott, whose fifteen-year-old son Samuel fell to his death from a ladder while working on the ship in 1910. She supposedly cursed the ship and it sank two years later. (See also Godfather Of Legal Betting and various others.)
For a straight-on shot, see the post at the Paddy Duffy collection.
Images of the completed piece are from March 27th and 29th. The in-progress image below is from March 18th.
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Mary was born in Dundela Avenue in east Belfast in 1892 and lived to the grand old age of 90. Mary Rodie was no ordinary woman: she was the only daughter of five children born to Robert and Ellen McKee. She married John Rodie on July 1918 at Lisburn Road Methodist Church and they had five children who she introduced to literature, by reading to them, and to music, by playing the piano. John worked, as did many men in east Belfast, in the Harland and Wolff shipyard. These were war years and food was rationed. This motivated Mary to always supplement the family income. She was a fantastic seamstress and, throughout her life, used this skill for her family and for others. During the 1930s, and until the end of the Second World War, she ran a branch of Milville’s Funeral Directors on the Newtownards Road. The family lived about the premises during those years. In fact we learnt that locally she was known as Mrs Melville as she was the face of Melville’s. She became a person who offered advice and guidance to those in times of need, almost like an early version of Citizens Advice. Mary viewed the world with practicality, compassion, and kindness which she shared with people who lived in the neighbouring area. Her Legact lives on through her wisdom, love and her philosophy of ‘Give flowers to the living‘ and be grateful for the life you have.”
Gawn Street, east Belfast
Other entries in the Eastside Lives Heritage Trail include Miss McMinn’s Girls’ Club | The Godfather Of Legal Betting | Two Smart Alecs | Desano’s. For a list of all fourteen, see the Trail’s pamphlet (pdf).
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here is a bonus post, thanks to our London correspondent, of the latest offering from Banksy, showing “foliage” added to the wall behind a pruned-back cherry tree (BBC) by a youth with a canister sprayer. The piece perhaps indicates a desire for more greenery in the area – Finsbury Park in north London; it has already been vandalised with white paint (Guardian).
The final image below is of a 2012 Banksy (Artlyst) that is still hanging on in Kentish town, of a girl with a large lollipop pulling a kiddie-wagon containing a rocket.
Previously on Extramural: Banksy-style art in Belfast and Bundoran.
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Copyright © 2024 Peter Moloney
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The “Put it back, thief” imagery is applied here to Palestine and Israel, except that there is no piece of territory in the Israeli arm, only a grasping hand, and the slogan is “Saoırse don Phalaıstín”.
In case you need any reminding of the trope, a close-up from the Kneecap mural in Hawthorn Street is included directly below; in CNR muraling, the imagery dates back to Stad Maggie Anoıs (1986) and England Get Out Of Ireland (1989). Similar imagery, based on a Soviet poster, was seen recently in Give It Back, Thief, concerning Lough Neagh.
Finally below is “An Phalaıstín” with the flag as a shield, as though the country were a sporting club.
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Irish politicians are making their annual pilgrimage to the United States for St Patrick’s Day. Taoıseach Leo Varadkar was first in Boston and is now in Washington, DC (gov.ie). Sınn Féın leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill say (Sky News) that during their visit they will raise the issues of Israel’s military attack and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza with US President Joe Biden, changing “Say “No” to Genocide Joe” to “Say “No” to genocide, Joe”. Michelle O’Neill (SF) and Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) together promoted Northern Irish business opportunities (journal.ie).
SDLP leaders are not in attendance and People Before Profit called for a boycott (see previously: Don’t Look Away).
Meanwhile in Qatar, it is hoped that negotiations between Hamas and Israel will be rejoined (AP).
Slıabh Dubh has its own Visual History page.
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Here is an assortment of images concerning boycotts of Israeli goods in response to the invasion of Gaza. Above, “Ban Israeli goods” on the wall of the Alexandra Park Tesco, north Belfast; below, V-for-victory fingers as scissors snipping barbed wire (bdsmovement.net) in a shop window in Andersonstown, west Belfast; “BDS” [Boycott, divestment, sanctions] and “IPSC” [Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which maintains a list of Israeli goods] next to a painted Palestinian flag in the middle Falls, west Belfast; plus an Artists Against Genocide (ig) sticker.
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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In this new statue in the grounds of Belfast city hall, Mary Ann McCracken is shown handing out abolitionist leaflets with a pleading enslaved woman above the words “Am I not a woman and a sister?” The same supplicant image is on the medallion (perhaps made by Wedgwood for the Society For The Abolition Of The Slave Trade – WP) worn at her throat. See also: The Blots On The Page Are So Black and The World Affords No Enjoyment Equal To That Of Promoting The Happiness Of Others.
“Mary Ann McCracken’s feminist ideals and commitment to the principles of Equality, Liberty, Fraternity applying equally to the Rights of Woman defined her participation in the United Irish Movement.” For McCracken’s connection to the 1798 Rebellion, see These Are Times That Try Men’s Souls.
“Mary Ann McCracken (1770-1866) Abolitionist, educator, social reformer and businesswoman. Sheas Mary Ann an fód ar son na mbocht, na mban, na bpáıstí agus ar son sıúd a bhí faoi dhaoırse. [Mary Ann stood up for the poor, women, children, and for those who were enslaved.]”
The statue was unveiled together with a statue to Winifred Carney on International Women’s Day (March 8th); they were produced by Ralf and Naomi Sander (BCC).
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Copyright © 2024 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 