Belfast

Drop Allianz

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The campaign urging the GAA to sever its ties to sponsor Allianz (web) began in August 25th, after an update to a 2024 report by the UN urged businesses – including Allianz – to end their ties with Israel (UN | youtube). In response, a letter of protest, signed by 800 former and current players, was delivered to the GAA (RTÉ) but a vote in December retained the sponsorship (BBC | Irish Examiner). Protests have continued (e.g. at the GAA congress), among which is this message written in posters on the hoarding around Casement Park (for which, see Build Casement Now).

Andersonstown Road, west Belfast

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Fine Heads

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Belfast match-maker Maguire & Paterson made matches under the brands Buffalo, Swift, Bo-Peep, and City Hall (and perhaps others). The factory was on the Donegall Road, on what became, for a time, the site of West Side Stores (and is now a set of houses facing the Park Centre. Here is an aerial view (on Fb) of the factory in 1947, when Celtic Park was still standing.

This tribute to the Belfast match is by Leo Boyd (web) in Beechmount Avenue, west Belfast.

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For What Died The Sons Of Roısín?

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This is a pair of small boards at the corner of Balkan Street and Leeson Street, Divis, west Belfast.

Above, “Saoırse [freedom]” and “beır bua [seize victory]” and imagery of the four provinces and a lark in barbed wire are on top of the old Divis flats. The flats were built to replace the tightly-packed streets of the lower Falls. After the first three blocks were completed in 1969, there was a plan to have a mixture of flats all the way up to Dunville Park (“Phase 2” in this 30-minute BBC video on the flats, which also includes the story of its eventual demise.

Below, “For what died the sons of Róısín [Dubh]?” The Dogs of IRA D company, second battalion [Belfast brigade] are “unbowed” and “unbroken”.

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Óıge Na bhFál

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“Our youth, out culture, our community, our future”. This mural was painted in 2014 but the future for one of the clubs featured – Seán Mac Dıarmada/Seán Sean McDermott’s in the yellow with green stripe – was short-lived, as the club folded later the same year. The other club, Michael Davitt’s in the green, white, and gold strip, still exists.

Painted by Lucas Quigley in Sultan Way/Ross Road, Divis, west Belfast.

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Save The Human Tribe

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These are small works on boards by Italian artist Jorit (ig) (full name Jorit Ciro Cerullo) who typically paints large walls. The pieces are all of human faces, and they all have in common a two pairs of joined streaks, one on each cheek.

The painting above has been mounted on Northumberland Street (Visual History), west Belfast, in a vacant spot left by the left-hand-side of the Climate Change board which dates back to 2012 and which was seen most recently with a Martyrs’ Committee board placed on top (T05821). On the right-hand-side there is now Soldiers Of The Republic.

The painting below is on the substation below Divis Tower. For the anti-joy-riding tarp, see 100 Years Of Partition.

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Respect Our Community

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“Fáılte” [Welcome] to Moyard. The trend in painting electrical boxes (see the Visual History page) has been taken up in west Belfast, though many of the pieces are not by street-artists, as they all are in other areas of the city.

Here are three painted boxes from Springfield Park along with an additional box (the ‘donate’ hearts – see X11524) on the other side of the Springfield Road in Divismore Way, which join those seen in Bóthar Chluanaí, Gaırdín Na hÉıreann, and Perennials.

See also: St Agnes | Wildstroke | Gort Na Móna Abú | Pobal ⁊ Óıge | Lóıste Na Móna | Ag Croí An Phobaıl | Gort Na Móna | Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants | Send In The Clowns | St Agnes Abú | From The Plough To The Stars | Humanitarian Intervention | Lily Of The Rift Valley | Free Palestine.

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Lily Of The Rift Valley

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A pair of wooden lilies – symbol of the 1916 Easter Rising – are painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag and are placed below Palestinian flags on the Greater Ballymurphy memorial garden. (For the the names on the plaque, see the Peter Moloney Collection.)

The electrical boxes (below) are from the community mural at the bottom of Springhill. The imagery on the second one is by Emmalene Blake – see Seas Leıs An Phalaıstín.

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We Are Not Amused

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Belfast Royal Hospital was renamed in honour of Queen Victoria in 1899 (two years before her death) and a bronze statue by J. Wenlock Rollins (Public Statues) was installed in 1903 at the entrance to the hospital in its new Grosvenor Road location.

Activists from Lasaır Dhearg (web) poured red paint over what it called a “symbol of empire” on Friday (February 27th) (News Letter | MSN’s copy of the Irish News story). Paint remained on Sunday, despite an earlier attempt to wash it off (Independent).

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Anti-Racism World Cup

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The date of the next Anti-Racism World Cup, a soccer tournament at Donegal Celtic contested by international youth teams, has been announced as July 25th, 2026 (ARWC Fb). The banner above includes the flags of antifa, Catalonia, Lebanon, Cuba, Ireland, Sudan, the Basque Country, Palestine.

Andersonstown Road, west Belfast

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