The Back Of The Net

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03320 2016-03-07 Own Goal+

The Irish News last week reported the concerns of west Belfast parents whose children sometimes play under-10 football at Inverary Community Centre, in front of the UVF mural shown above, with the flags of Scotland and the United Kingdom in the background. East Belfast FC, which is based at Inverary, responded that the complaints are “contrived” and that all children are welcome at the ground.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03320 IFA Irish Football Association st andrew saltire union jack st george cross 1912

Jason Williams

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Graffiti artist Jason Williams (REVOK) is paid homage by Psychonautes in Corporation Street. In 2018, H&M would sue Williams for use of a Brooklyn, NY piece by him (WaPo) before capitulating to a public outcry on-line.

Below is a wide shot of the street art in Corporation Street prior to being covered by Glenn Molloy’s gallery of famous faces. From left to right:

Bacchus by JMK
[writing]
[skull]
Crow by Faigy
[pig]
Jason Williams by Psychonautes [and before that, a floating head]
Three Missed Calls by DMC
[writing, three panels, one by Filth?]
[waitress]
[bowling ball face]
Amanda Jayne

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03314 X03315

Fáılte Go Dtí Ard Eoın

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“Welcome to Ardoyne.” Updated images of a 2014 series of panels in Ardoyne Avenue, celebrating the neighbourhood and reproducing some well-known images from the area. The years have not been kind, with the top layer of brick coming off in many places, including the eyes of boxer Eamonn Magee (?).

See also Growing Up Too Fast.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03307 X03308 X03309 X03310 mickey doherty

Twinbrook Rebuilds

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03304 2016-02-29 Twinbrook Rebuild+

The Twinbrook Road shops have been moved out to the edge of the street and the murals that were on the old shops are now gone or obscured, including the long wall of hunger-striker portraits had been updated annually since 2006. That mural has been condensed into a new, printed, image, placed on the side of the shops facing the Stewartstown Road. As before, it shows blanketmen Freddie Toal and Hugh Rooney, Sands, and three volunteers firing a volley of shots, with the portraits of the strikers who died in the 70s and 80s along the bottom.

03303 2016-02-29 Twinbrook Rebuild w+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03304 X03303 twinbrook rd colin commemoration committee stagg gaughan sands mcdonnell hurson lynch doherty devine mcilwee o’hara hughes mccreesh

Voice Of The North

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03300 2016-02-28 Sell Out

“Sell Out” with arrows pointing to three red dots on the wall of the Republican Ex-Prisoners Association (also housing SNAP – Safer Neighbourhood Ardoyne Project – and Glór An Tuaiscirt (Voice Of The North – an Irish-language and cultural organisation)) in Ardyone.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03300 brompton rd cumann na h-iarchimi poblachtacha

Unbroken Presence

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03302 2016-02-28 Ardoyne Wall Curtain+

More “peace” line images today (after yesterday’s repainting of the Cliftonville “peace” line in Blue Sky Thinking): at the end of February work began taking down a section of the 8 foot high wall on the Ardoyne side of the Crumlin Road, separating Ardoyne from the Woodvale area, though the section close to Woodvale and the wall on the Woodvale side remain for now.

The houses on the north side of the road will now be able to see the road and the doors of Holy Cross church (shown above).

The vintage piece of Free Brendan Lillis graffiti shown in the final image survives, just out of picture to the left in the wide shot below.

Here is some BBC-NI footage of the wall being knocked down. Here are Irish Times, NewsLetter and Tele articles on the 2013 NI Executive policy objective of removing the lines by 2023. And here’s an interview with Heather Bellamy, author of Towards A City Without Walls.

03305 2016-03-01 Ardoyne Wall w+

03306 2016-03-01 Ardoyne Wall Cross+

03319 2016-03-07 Brendan Lillis Crumlin Graffiti+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03302 X03305 X03306 X03319 this cross stands here to mark the unbroken presence of the passionists and the people at holy cross since 1869 and as a sign of hope

Ulster’s Fighting Men

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03282 2016-02-26 Ulsters Fighting Men+

This new mural in Ballyduff commemorates the sacrifice of the Ulster Volunteers and Young Citizen Volunteers who fought in WWI and in particular their action in 1916; 2016 is the centenary of the Battle Of The Somme. The flag of (modern) UVF 1st East Antrim battalion flies on either side of the mural.

In the second image: the other new mural on this box was featured in If Needed, We Shall Rise Again

In the third image: The Ultimate Sacrifice

03229 2015-12-26 Somme 1stEA Purple+

03283 2016-02-26 Ulsters Fighting Men w+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03282 X03283 X03229 fairview ave lest we forget YCV they paid the ultimate sacrifice present peace now still our hand death no longer stalks the land our weapons are silent and shall remain but if needed we shall rise again hooded gunmen world war one