The eightieth anniversary of VE (“Victory In Europe”) Day is May 8th. Commemorative events in Belfast include a walking tour of the city centre (City Council) and a dance on the HMS Belfast (IWM); for events elsewhere in Northern Ireland, see VE-VJDay80. Pubs will be open for an extra two hours (until 1 a.m.) on the day.
Shore Road, north Belfast. For the monument and the “Lest We Forget” board in the background, see Remembrance Sunday.
World War II ended in Europe at 11 p.m. on May 8th, after Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allied forces. The date was dubbed “Victory In Europe Day” or “VE Day” and this year (2025) marks its eightieth anniversary.
The text at the bottom of this Shankill Road poster reads: “‘My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not the victory or of any class, it’s a victory of the Great British people as a whole. We were the first, in these ancient isles, to draw the sword against tyranny.’ – Prime Minister Winston S Churchill”. The lines come from brief remarks Churchill made to the crowds assembled at the Ministry Of Health in London – the text can be found at Forces News; Pathé newsreel of Churchill’s earlier radio announcement of the end of the war can be found on youtube.
“English Brigade Ulster Volunteer Force.” “England and Ulster – the ties that bind.” “United we stand.”
On the left are the words from William Blake’s poem, which also serve as the lyrics to the hymn Jerusalem.
“Let our flag run out straight in the wind/The old red shall be floated again./When the ranks that are thin shall be thinned/When the names that were twenty are ten.” [from Swinburne’s A Song In Time Of Order which was also used as a socialist song]
The images along the bottom illustrate the connection between Northern Ireland and England. From left to right: Edward Carson in Liverpool in 1912; 10,00 pledges from Liverpool men; Carson addressing 100,000 people in Hyde Park, London; a banner reading “City of London supports loyal Ulster”; “Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson opens the Ulster Tower in 1921. Sir Henry was killed by the IRA in 1922 at his home in London”; GS Cather, VC winner with the Ulster Division; evacuees to Liverpool in 1973.
Kneecap performed their Coachella sets in front of a large screen onto which messages were projected, including denunciation of the Israeli “genocide” of Palestinians “enabled” by the US (Rolling Stone).
Many cancelled gigs followed, as well as a call from Sharon Osbourne that the band’s work visas be revoked (BBC). In response, Kneecap insisted that their speech was not an incitement to violence (BBC).
The band’s visas might also be in jeopardy because the band has parted ways with booking agents IAG, which sponsored the band’s US tour (Hollywood Reporter).
Further, scrutiny of past performances revealed pro-Hamas and -Hizbollah chants, which have now led to an investigation by the UK’s anti-terror police (NME). The band also apologized for a 2023 remark that “the only good Tory [Conservative MP] is a dead Tory” (BBC).
Many artists and bands have come out in support of Kneecap – about 40 put their names to a statement posted to instagram. The band also has the support of the graffitist in the image above: “Free Palestine – silence = complicity. Seas le Kneecap [stand with Kneecap]”.
The Paratroop regiment killed two Protestants on the Shankill in 1972 and the community did not forgive them – compare Stop The Witch Hunt from the middle Shankill with Paras Fight Back – but the flag is now flying at the Argyle Street memorial because, the Belfast Telegraph suggests, Soldier F has links to the area. Soldier F – the Paratroop soldier who is facing two charges of murder on Bloody Sunday 1972 – plead ‘not guilty’ in December 2024 (BBC) and will stand trial in September 2025 (BBC | RTÉ).
“I love it when a plan comes together” was the catch-phrase of Hannibal Smith, leader of the (fictional) A-Team, a crew of US soldiers from the Viet Nam war, on the run from the military police and working as hired guns back in the States, in the US television show of the same name. The font used in “THE FA TEAM” (below), like the font used in the show’s title card and credits, imitates military stencils.
There were 98 episodes of the action-series (WP), and it felt as though at least 97 of them involved the gang’s GMC Vandura van being turned into an armed vehicle and used in a spectacular, guns-blazing, escape from and/or assault on the bad guys, assisted by daredevil helicopter-flying by Howling Mad Murdock. Both vehicles have been modified in the Foreign Assassins (Fb) graffiti art shown here with spray cans that are firing their caps as missiles.
The art replaces Stranger Kings on the Comber Greenway in east Belfast.
The area around the junction of the Newtownards Road and the Holywood Road in east Belfast is known as the “Holywood Arches”. The name comes from the fact that – up until 1950 – the old Belfast & County Down railway line from Comber (and beyond that from Newtownards or Newcastle) crossed over both streets on top of two large arches, wide enough to allow traffic in both directions and tall enough to accommodate double-decker buses (see e.g. this image on Pinterest).
This mural is on the shutters of the nearby Arches Café (web); the vintage photograph reproduced can be seen in this pdf from Eastside Partnership.
See also: Step Back In Time about a train crash in 1945 at Ballymacarrett station (on the Bangor line) that killed 22.
Thursday, May 8th, marks the eightieth anniversary of VE or “Victory in Europe” day, the end of WWII on the continent. About 380,000 British soldiers died during the war. Commemorative events in Belfast include a walking tour of the city centre (City Council) and a dance on the HMS Belfast (IWM); for events elsewhere in Northern Ireland, see VE-VJDay80. Pubs will be open for an extra two hours (until 1 a.m.) on the day.
This printed flag is in Dee Street, east Belfast, previously home to various WWI commemorations (seen in All together Now | At The Eleventh Hour); for more on the KCIII and QEII boards included in the final image, below, see My God-Given Right To Rule.
