The house next to the Village memorial garden got an extension at the back in 2020 and with it the left-hand part of the house’s gable wall was extended upward (compare with the images from 2017 in Continuing Conflicts). The board with a verse from McCrea’s In Flanders Fields was present previously, but has been raised, and above it there now stands a red-hand emblem of the “UVF 2nd batt. south Belfast”.
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The Windsor Women’s Centre (web | Fb) provides day-care and educational services for women in the Village, south Belfast. In the mural around the building children are depicted playing at various jobs: the mac on the “lollipop lady” (at a school crossing) is too large, the nurse is listening to the heart-beat of a teddy-bear.
On the other side of the centre from the expression of thanks for the NHS in Together We Are Stronger.
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“Thank you NHS & key workers” – this is a Covid-era wall-painting in the Village, south Belfast, illustrating togetherness with a heart of interlocking jigsaw pieces and a rainbow of various colours.
Kilburn Street, replacing Women Too (whose title can still be seen in the eave above this painting), and on the other side of the Women’s Centre from Allowed To Dream, We Learn To Fly.
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This mural protests Orange marches along “traditional routes” in Drumcree (Portadown) and Lower Ormeau (Belfast). It’s been roughly 25 years since the tension over these marches was at its height, but the scars have yet to heal. The DUP made a motion in the House Of Commons to lift the ban on the Drumcree parade this year (News Letter | Irish Times | BBC).
This long-standing mural was perhaps re-touched in 2021. Compare to the 2010 post.
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“Big Ribbo” is David Conville, who died last year of injuries sustained in an assault by a friend (Bel Tel | Belfast Live). This memorial board shows him playing in the Ulster First Flute (Sandy Row) flute band (Fb).
For the bonfire mural, see Guiding Light.
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“In loving memory of our most gracious sovereign – Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022. God save the Queen.” The platinum (70th) jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, celebrated in June, 2022, was followed a short time later by her death, on September 8th. These two boards in Maldon Street, mark the two events.
Replaces a Ruby Murray board and the info board that went with the John Darren Sutton painting of King Billy in Tavanagh St.
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The Lagan river between Belfast and Lisburn was made navigable in 1763 after seven years of work. The remaining distance between there and Lough Neagh (and the coalfields of east Tyrone, which were connected to Lough Neagh and then Portadown and Newry) required a canal, which finally opened on January 1st, 1794. The were 27 locks on the route between Belfast and the lough, and horses walking on the tow-parth would pull the barges up river (WP | Lagan Valley | Lagan Navigation has photographs of horses at work). Horsey Hill was perhaps the site of stables in south Belfast; it is now the name of the alley that continues on towards the river from the Ukraine sunflower mural off Harrow Street in the Holylands.
Forward South Partnership/Connor McKernan’s video about the history of the Holylands, including Horsey Hill, can be seen on youtube.
Painted by Daniela Balmaverde (ig) and DMC. At the bottom of Horsey Hill, along the embankment, are Animals Two By Two.
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Happy sea creatures in blissful ignorance of their destinies as food. On the side of E Kou Xian (web) (lettering, top right) and the adjacent shop Hao Pin Wei (on the sailboat). Also in the street are Lee Foods and the Same Happy café. There is a QEII 70th jubilee mural on the side of the defunct Wai Kee restaurant.
Apsley Street in Donegall Pass, on the site of an old 36th Division board that went back at least to 1999.
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The Citizens’ Assembly is a group of 99 randomly-chosen Irish citizens, plus a chair, that considers large-scale issues over the course of months. It began in 2016 by taking up the Eighth Amendment on abortion, the “pensions timebomb” fixed-term parliaments, voter turnout and referendums, and climate change – it is not restricted, like its predecessor the Constitutional Convention, to constitutional issues (WP). The 2020-2021 Assembly considered gender equality and biodiversity loss.
Sınn Féın called for an Assembly on Irish unity at its November (2022) Ard Fheıs (Irish Examiner | Derry Journal | youtube panel) and Belfast City Council passed an SDLP motion to recommend that the Taoıseach form an Assembly (News Letter); in December, the Dublin City Council approved a measure calling for an Assembly to consider the topic (SF).
“The Irish government should establish a citizens’ assembly on Irish unity/tıonól na saoránach ar aontú na hÉıreann.” Sınn Féın’s preferred outcome of such a process is given at the bottom of the board: “#Time4Unity/Am d’Aontacht”. The images show the board in south Belfast (Cromac Street).
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Paddy Duffy Collection 