According to this page from Early Christian Sites In Ireland, trees next to wells were considered holy, and “rags were tied to trees, or objects left there, in the belief that, while they remained, the prayers were still effective”. These pacifiers (or dummies, as they are commonly known) were spotted hanging from trees in the Waterworks. Are these the holy trees of our Late Christian period? Or just a sign that drugs can be procured?
Whiskey, the middle of five panels (see below) in another piece from the courtyard of the Dark Horse pub in the city centre portraying four Northern Irish industries of/in the past – rope, ships, whiskey – the words to the song William Bloat – and tobacco products.
A new, computer-designed and -printed board in Twinbrook/Cıll Uaıghe, with painted lettering below, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Gibraltar killings and subsequent attack on the funeral in Milltown cemetery (for which see also 25 Years – Complete and In Progress).
One of the twin brooks is Colin Burn, which runs through the Colin Glen forest park; Cıll Uaıghe is reflected in the name of the nearby Kilwee industrial estate. Strictly speaking, this piece is ‘beyond Belfast’, as Poleglass and Twinbrook are under the jurisdiction of Lisburn City Council.
Bobby Sands grew up and went to school in Rathcoole but in 1972, when he was eighteen, the family home was attacked. They moved to Twinbrook, where Sands joined the IRA (Bobby Sands Trust | WP).
This mosaic is near the Twinbrook home, on the same wall that was the site of the Carol-Ann Kelly mural. Kelly was killed two weeks after Sands’s death.
“Remember the Hunger Strikers – 32nd Anniversary”. Twinbrook memorial to the hunger strikers of 1981, updated annually. Bobby Sands, featured on the right, and who lived a stones-throw away from this mural, was the first to die, on May 5th. Seen previously in 2008.
“Welcome To The Shankill Road. We are Proud, Defiant, Welcoming” with images of Belfast in the blitz, the Orange Order and bonfires on July 12th, boxing and soccer, and contemporary murals in the local area. The mural is above the security gates on Northumberland Street.
With God on our side … The BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) standing shoulder to shoulder, or at least corner to corner, with republican POWs in the New Lodge.
A board has quickly gone up, on top of the Guernica mural on the International Wall, to commemorate the death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, who died on March 5th, at age 58 (WP).
“Adios! Amigo. The path to a new, better and possible world is not capitalism, the path is socialism.”
“Defenders of the Woodvale from 1969 B Coy”. The Woodvale Defence Association (WDA) was the largest of the local associations which merged together in 1971 to form the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
