Author: Extramural Activity

Remembering Is Not So Easy

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On the anniversary of David Ervine’s death, January 8th, a new board was launched in his memory, with images of Ervine “yearning for peace” in the cages of Long Kesh, where he met Gusty Spence (the pair can be seen together in the middle of the first column of photographs).

After his release, Ervine turned to politics, running unsuccessfully as a PUP candidate for Pottinger in the Belfast City Council elections of 1985 (WP); he would eventually be successful in 1997. In 1998 he was returned by Belfast East in the Assembly election (ARK). He helped bring about the loyalist ceasefire in 1994 – which was read aloud by Spence (youtube) – and was pro-Agreement in 1998 (DIB | Guardian | Slugger).

The information about the Memory Chair sculpture makes mention of Ervine’s boots but it seems they have not survived the mothballing of the sculpture which was last seen on site – boots included – in 2014.

Montrose Street South, replacing the various pieces seen in late 2024’s Today, Everyday, And Always.

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Battle Of The Somme

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The badge or insignia of the 36th (Ulster) Division most frequently seen in murals is the one on the left of this board in Ballyduff, combining a red hand on a field of shamrocks with the Union Flag and the harp of the Royal Irish Rifles. The simpler insignia of the 36th Division on the right is being seen more frequently – it features a left-handed red hand, while the other uses a right-handed red hand, as do the flags of Ulster and of Northern Ireland.

Ballyduff Gardens, Newtownabbey, replacing a painted mural seen in It Grows In Fields Where Valour Led.

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Armagh For Sam

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“Ádh mór Ard Mhacha.”

The board below is from Armagh’s successful 2024 campaign in the senior football championship. The painted well-wishes in the image above might come from 2002, which is the year of Armagh’s only other All-Ireland win, but perhaps from one of the years in which Armagh were Ulster champions (2004, 2005, 2006 or 2008), as the earliest recorded image of it is from 2010.

Drumbreda Crescent and Culdee Drive, Armagh

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Ulster Volunteers

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These faded Armagh murals have the titles “UVF Gun-Smuggler 1913” and “Arms Training 1913”.

The gun-smuggling mural features not the 1914 gun-running on Clyde Valley – the ship that brought in the weapons and ammunition into Larne – but a motor-car. There was earlier gun-running or bulk gun-purchasing – 175 rifles were bought from Harrods by the Earl Of Lanesborough and sent to Enniskillen (Balaclava Street) and 500 rifles were brought from Manchester in August 1913 (Irish Bayonets). (See also History Ireland.) These perhaps used automobiles for distribution, and the Larne gun-running is described as the first time that the horseless carriage was used in a military operation – there were about 350 vehicles in the “Motor Car Corps” (Angelsey p. 3). 

The location of the car, and of the ‘arms training’ in the second mural, are unknown. Here is a 1914 image (Getty) showing tents and a single machine-gun at Ballywalter. The sources of both paintings are unknown.

The murals date back to at least 2012 (see the Peter Moloney Collection).

Gough Avenue, Barrack Hill, Armagh

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Macha

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“Macha – máthaır, bandıa, banríon, gaıs[c]íoch/mother, goddess, queen, warrior.” Armagh is named after Macha, who is shown here pregnant against knot-work of three interwoven horses. In one story about Macha, she wins a race against the horses of Connor, the king of Ulster, even though she is pregnant. The race caused her to give birth and she cursed the men of the Red Branch for nine generations, which would leave them all – except for Cú Chulaınn – unable to fight to the forces of Medb (Visual History).

“Artist: Sheila McGaffin – Samhaın 2025”. McGaffin was profiled in Armagh Jobs.

Above the Cuchulainn Bar in Dobbin Street, Armagh

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Niall And Macha

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This is a mural of King Niall (Nıall Caılle, Niall of the Callan) and Queen Macha. Niall was high king of Ireland (in competition with Fedelmıd of Munster WP) who held off the Vikings in the late 800s (WP) and died in 846 by drowning in the Callan river. Macha is a much earlier and mythological queen, and gives her name to the town: Ard Mhacha.

The central figures reproduce paintings by Jim Fitzpatrick (Visual History). The Niall figure comes from Nemed The Great but the Macha figure comes from a label Fitzpatrick produced in 1988 for Rosc “mead”, even though Macha (one of them, at least) was the wife of Nemed and there is a female figure in Nemed The Great.

Below the planets and stars, St Patrick’s (Catholic) Cathedral is on the left (WP) and St Patrick’s (CofI) Cathedral is on the right (WP).

In the border, clockwise from left to right, we see: the Tandragee Idol (WP), Naomh Bríd/St Brigid’s, St Patrick preaching the trinity, Irish dancing, Gaelic football, Armagh Harps, “Ard Mhacha”, the Armagh county crest in colour in the apex (Club & County), “Armagh”, Na Pıarsaıgh Óga, hurling/camogie, Cú Chulaınn’s, mummers (perhaps specifically the Armagh Rhymers), Jonathan Swift, a steam locomotive (perhaps representing the Armagh rail disaster of 1889, in which 80 people died WP); a vintage image of Callan Street is depicted along the bottom (History Armagh).

The side-wall features the word “welcome” in many languages, and Celtic knot-work surrounding an image of the Celtic Cross below St Patrick’s, perhaps inspired by this 1903 photograph (Flickr).

Painted by a crew of Belfast artists – Danny D and Mark Ervine, along with Lucas Quigley, Marty Lyons, Micky Doherty – and organised by the Callan Street Residents’ Association, with funding from the European Union’s Peace III initiative.

Culdee Crescent/Callan Street, Armagh

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Our Souls Cry Out

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This entry updates 2023’s 800 Years Of Irish Resistance, showing images of the republican memorial garden in Drumarg, Armagh. The main change is the removal of Cú Chulaınn (Visual History) and the elevation of the James Connolly board into its place: “If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and, mayhap, [here “perhaps”] raise a force that will destroy you. We defy you[, England]! Do your worst!” – James Connolly, Courtsmartial And Revolution, 1914.

There is also a new board in the ‘Women In Struggle’ gallery, next to a portrait of Maıréad Farrell and a “Republican Women’s Roll Of Honour”. It shows Colman Doyle’s famous ?1974? image (NLI | Treason Felony) of a female volunteer with assault rifle accompanied by the words, “This is not a man’s war but a people’s war, and very, very much suffering has been borne by the women, be they mothers, wives, political activists, or volunteers, and the men ought to remember that without the sacrifice of women there would be no struggle at all.” The words seem to come from a 1982 poster (CAIN) part of which was turned into a mural in Ballymurphy.

There is also a small plaque below the Connolly board to local woman Dympna McCague, who died in 2019 (Fb).

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Support The Hunger Strikers

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Palestine Action was declared a “terrorist organisation” in July, 2025, after members broke into Brize Norton and spray-painted Air Force planes and breached an Elbit facility near Bristol and caused an estimated one million pounds-worth of damage (Canary) in 2024. (Elbit is an Israeli defence contractor with 16 sites in the UK – WP.)

Eight of the twenty-nine people held on charges related to these events began hunger-strikes in November and December, 2025. They are listed on the placard in the third image: Kamran Ahmed, Teuta Hoxha, Heba Muraisi, Umer Khalid, Qesser Zuhran, Amu Big, Lewie Chiaramello, Jon Cink.

The last three strikers ended their fasts in January, claiming victory when a large government contract went to Raytheon rather than Elbit (CNN | Guardian).

“The Five Demands: 1. End all censorship 2. Immediate bail 3. Right to fair trail 4. De-proscribe Pal[estine] Action 5. Shut Elbit down.”

Both “don’t let them die” and “the five demands” are familiar from the 1980 and 1981 Irish republican hunger-strikes. Here is just one example of each.

Dalton Park, Armagh

See also: North Belfast Supports The Hunger Strikers

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