This is a gallery of the boards along the lane to the east of Windsor Park where Linfield and Northern Ireland play their soccer matches. Five describe “historical games” played by Northern Ireland at the ground (from 1958, 1975, 1981, 2005, and 2015) and five describe Linfield FC (the “7 trophy” teams of 1921 and 1961, ‘the blues in Europe’, a history of the club, the 2005-2006 season, and Captains).
To the left and right of these boards are the murals seen in Football For All.
“‘Creativity, like society, thrives when the individual elements fit within a bigger picture’ – Ernest Hemingway”
There’s no record of this statement being written or uttered by Hemingway. Instead, it appears to come from Will Gompertz’s 2015 book Think Like An Artist (wikiquote gives “Creativity, like society, thrives when the individual elements fit within, and add to, a bigger picture.”).
Hope Street, Belfast city centre, on the side of the Ginger Bisto on Great Victoria Street.
‘Football For All’ is a programme from the Irish FA Foundation aimed at stamping out discrimination and encouraging inclusivity among supporters (web). The new mural, above, is in the lane-way that runs down from Donegall Avenue to the footbridge. There are also reproductions of drawings by kids in the spaces below the footbridge.
Between the two are the boards about Linfield and recounting the role the ground has played in the history of the Northern Ireland team – see Windsor Park.
“Promoting Culture, Preserving Identity”. Here are a pair of new boards Mount Vernon Park, north Belfast, launched on August 11th, 2024, celebrating three Scottish bands and the local Fifes And Drums. Each of the bands’ emblems includes the Roman numeral “III”, which also appears in the bottom corner of the ‘Band Of Brothers’ board. It stands for the 3rd Belfast (i.e. north Belfast) battalion of the UVF, “Tiger’s Bay”. The St George’s Cross in the top-left corner and the purple background (of the ‘Band Of Brothers’ board) come from the UVF flag, which typically also has an orange star in the bottom right, here replaced by a swirling musical staff and Union Flag.
“Band Of Brothers. This artwork is a tribute to the unbreakable bond that we in North Belfast, share along with the following bands: Craigneuk [Scotland] True Defenders flute band, formed 1947 [Fb]; Andrew Murphy Memorial flute band [Scotland], formed 1988 [Fb]; City Of Belfast Fifes And Drums, formed 2003 [Fb]; Bellshill [Scotland] Defenders flute band, formed in 2017 [Fb]. For decades, these bands have remained faithful, and been a credit to the loyalist cause that binds us. When on parade, the honour and dignity displayed by each band, is impeccable. In timeless memory of the Fallen, each band proudly and respectfully bears the Colours and Emblems of: the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Young Citizen Volunteers, the 36th (Ulster) Division. ‘More than friends, comrades’.”
There has been a small but significant addition has been added below the repainted territorial marking “Loyalist Tiger’s Bay” – “Stop the boats”, the pledge given by Rishi Sunak in January 2023 after almost forty-six thousand people entered the UK in small boats in 2022 (BBC). This resulted in a media campaign in March of 2023 (gov.uk). The slogan was also seen on signs during the anti-immigration riots this (2024) summer (Mirror | Telegraph | NPR | Reuters) and heard chanted by rioters (SMH).
“Stop the boats” was for a time paired with “start the flights”. Since 2022, the Conservative government under Boris Johnson had planned to “start the flights” of some asylum seekers to Rwanda, but this required a protracted legal and legislative campaign involving a bill declaring the “Safety Of Rwanda” (January 2024) after a Supreme Court block on the programme (Human Rights Watch | BBC Explainer).
Sunak called a snap general election in late May, 2024; Labour took power and the Rwanda programme was scrapped (CBS). Sunak called a snap general election in late May, 2024; Labour took power and the Rwanda programme was scrapped (CBS). The language of stopping the boats, however, remains on the Labour website.
In the background of the wide shot, below, the main gable wall, it appears, is being painted to honour King Charles III in the same style as inside the estate – see I Will Plant Them.
For the meaning of the pre-existing “Genesis 38:28”, see Pro-Testant Reformation. It might be applied to the context of immigration in that it concerns the order of succession among twins.
Limestone Road, north Belfast
Update 2024-09-12: the words have been ?partially? whitewashed
“Tackle inequality – create opportunities – inspire change”. The large board shown here is in Cupar Way, near the security gates in North Howard Street, which are locked nightly between 8:30 and 6:30 a.m. (DoJ). These and the nearby Northumberland Street gates separate the lower Falls and the middle Shankill, including the young people from the Active Communities Network (web), a cross-community youth group that lobbied for increased opening hours to allow members to return home quickly after meetings (BBC).
The grand opening of the Vault collective’s (web) new digs in the Shankill Mission took place on August 17th. In preparation for the event, the shutters were painted by (top to bottom, left to right on the street) Dragos Musat (ig), Katriona (web), FGB (web), and Rob Hilken (web), each putting their own spin on the word “VAULT”.
These are the boards at the chip shop (formerly a Spar and before that a Mace) in the centre of the Mourneview estate, Lurgan.
Above, and in detail below, are the pieces from the front of the shop, in Pollock Drive. Anti-clockwise from bottom-left:
First: “Believe, we dare not boast,/Believe, we do not fear/We stand to pay the cost,/In all that men hold dear.//What answer from the North?/One Law, one Land, one Throne/If England drive us forth,/We shall not fall alone!” Kipling’s poem Ulster.
Next (tall piece): A company, 1st battalion, Mid Ulster brigade UVF – Lurgan as well as Broxburn (outside Edinburgh) and Thornliebank (near Glasgow).
Next: PAF plus (out of frame in the wide shot) “When injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty.” The same panel was seen in Ballyclare, though for the 1st East Antrim battalion rather than the Mid Ulster brigade.
Above: A tribute to the Ulster Volunteers from the area: the 9th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers joined the 108th brigade in the 36th (Ulster) Division; the 5th battalion joined the 31st brigade and the 10th (Irish) Division. This board goes back to (at least) 2011.
Finally (top left), a UDU/UDA board, to 1 company, D battalion, South Belfast. All of the remaining pieces are UVF/PAF.
Around the corner, in Mourne Road, a gallery of photographs of the Craigavon Protestant Boys (Fb) past and present, with a plaque in memory of Victor Stewart. “Our only crime is loyalty.”
In the adjacent Spelga Park: “Unbowed & unbroken – our only crime is loyalty – Mourneview/Gret estate bonfire” with an unusual combination of shamrock and Orange lily.
The people of Kilwilkie (Lurgan) supported the Armagh team in their (successful – RTÉ video) bid to win the All-Ireland senior football championship, repeating their former and only previous win in 2002 – see also Ard Mhacha (in north Belfast) and Ádh Mór Ard Mhacha (in Armagh) and (from 2023) The Core Of Armagh.
North Armagh remembers both the centenary of the Easter Rising – in black and white in the background are (above) the seven signatories of the Proclamation, (bottom left) Cumann Na mBan (see the 2014 west Belfast mural) and (bottom right) the Irish Citizen Army (depicted by the painting The Birth Of The Irish Republic) – but also nineteen local volunteers and activists from the Troubles era: (anti-clockwise from left) Thomas Harte, Michael Crossey, Charles Agnew, Julie Dougan, John Francis Green, Terry Brady, David Kennedy, Peter Corrigan, Sheena Campbell, Sam Marshall, Eamonn McCann, Harry McCartney, JB O’Hagan, Sean McIlvenna, Eddie Dynes, Eugene Toman, Garvase McKerr, Sean Burns.
The emblems in the upper corners of those of Na Fıanna Éıreann and the Irish National Volunteers. The inclusion of the National Volunteers is unusual and perhaps a mistake: they were formed in 1914, when the Irish Volunteers split after Redmond urged Irishmen to join the British Army in the Great War; about 24,000 National Volunteers joined the 10th and 16th (alongside roughly 180,000 other Irishmen) (WP). The intended emblem might instead be that of the Irish Volunteers, which kept the name of the pre-WWI organisation but only a fraction of the volunteers, some of whom participated in the Easter Rising; their emblem is also a harp but with “IV” or “Irish Volunteers” or (for the Dublin brigade) the Fıanna Fáıl sunburst. (If you can clarify, please comment/get in touch.)
Paddy Duffy Collection 