Cousins Francis Hughes (Ó hÁodha) and Thomas McElwee (Mac Gıolla Bhuídhe) were the second and ninth of the 1981 hunger strikers to die. They share a grave in St. Mary’s churchyard in their hometown of Bellaghy, Co. London-/Derry. The image above shows their gravestone “erected by the people of Co. Derry and Co. Antrim”.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03932 ı measc laochra na nGael go raıbh a nanamacha óglaıgh na héıreann IRA
Poet Seamus Heaney died on this day 2013 and the gravestone erected in St Mary’s, Ballaghy, on the same day the following year. The epitaph is “Walk on air against your better judgement” from the poem ‘The Gravel Walks” in The Spirit Level.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03931 1939-2013
Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders makes an appearance in an inspirational poster in Garfield St. The connection to the colonel is perhaps that his idea for a fried chicken restaurant was turned down 300 times | Snopes. If you know better, please get in touch.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03957
32 County Sovereignty Movement (web) graffiti on the Alliance Avenue “peace” line.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Glasgow artist Conzo Throb (web | Fb) was back in Belfast for CNB16/HTN. The Avon name dates back to 1929 in New York and the company has sellers in more than 100 countries. Male sellers are uncommon but not unheard of – here’s a 2006 NYTimes profile of an ‘Avon Man’. Nonetheless, “Yer Da sells [the] Avon” is the ultimate Scots insult.
Previously by Conzo Throb: Fill Up On Colour | Let’s Melt
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Travel site In Your Pocket recently solicited a good term for people from Belfast. In 1963, JFK went to West Berlin and expressed solidarity with the encircled residents by saying “Ich bin ein Berliner” (inviting the misunderstanding that he was a Berliner Krapfen or jelly doughnut”, but the spirit of the message was clear). (WP has more info and video.) The stencil above puts Kennedy in Belfast: Ich bin ein Belfaster.
Thanks to Brendan McGarry for this image.
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Copyright © 2016 Brendan McGarry
X03927 Lisburn Road
Three images from the Taughmongh Family Learning Centre (run by Taughmonagh Community Forum) in Finwood Park of children from days gone by: the boys are playing football and girls are playing games in the street, in front of the old bungalows on the estate from the 1940s that were replaced in the 1980s. (For a small gallery of vintage images, see this BBC page.).
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03924 X03925 X03923
The bus turnaround at the entrance to Taughmonagh estate has been turned into a Somme Garden (see the third image, below). The “Welcome to Taughmonagh” sign at entrance has been covered over with a Union flag board with “Taughmonagh remembers” and the three figures in the sculpture in the middle have each been given a union jack cap.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03922 X03920 X03921 Taughmonagh heritage and culture society the bulbs for this somme garden were bought with donations by from the estate planted by the children to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle of the somme and in the morning we will remember them
Tommy Dickson ended his career (in 1965) with a partial season at Glentoran. Before that, however, he spent 16 seasons in the first team at Linfield, scoring 451 goals and leading the club to titles in the League Cup, Irish Cup, Gold Cup, Ulster Cup, City Cup, North-South Cup, and County Antrim Shield (shown at the top of the mural). (WP)
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03918 X03919 Malfin Dr
A meditating cat-headed figure with glowing heart in Kent St.
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 