In Irish mythology, Fıonn Mac Cumhaıll/Finn MacCool became wise (when still a boy) because he sucked on the thumb he burned while cooking the Salmon Of Knowledge for his master Finegas (Laud 610). The salmon, in turn, had gained the knowledge by eating nine hazelnuts that fell from nine trees into Tobar Segaıs/Tobar Chonnlaı (Dındshenchas – Boand II and Sınann II). The hazels belonged to Crimall The Sage and … that’s as far back as sources appear to go.
The knot-work dogs are Fıonn’s hounds Bran and Sceólang.
“Newry 2020” is not the place and date of the creation but the name of the initiative (Fb) that brought JMK (Jonny McKerr – ig) to Newry to paint this mural in Edward Street in 2023, with support from Newry BID (web), and the Newry, Mourne, And Down district council (Fb) (Newry.ie).
Steeple Veterans flute band is a part-time band drawing on “veterans” or “old boys” of the Steeple Defenders (which used to have a board nearby). The “older but no wiser” tag-line is exemplified by the fact that they dress up in costume each 12th for the return leg of the day– in 2023 they adopted Jurassic Park as their theme, with members dressed as dinosaurs, park rangers, and explorers. The black ribbons in the bottom corners are perhaps in memory of member David Johnston, who died last year (2023) (Belfast Live | BelTel).
Also included (below) is a tribute to Elizabeth II on the occasion of her platinum jubilee, a few months before she passed away in September, 2022, added next to the Somme mural seen in Ulster Volunteer Forces.
September 8th, 2022, is the date of the accession of Charles – then Prince Of Wales – the UK crown, upon the death of his mother Elizabeth at ten past three in the afternoon (as shown on the clock in the bottom left of the wide shot, below). At Balmoral Castle, the Royal Standard (in the top left of the wide shot, below) was lowered and immediately raised again, as the monarchy immediately moved to Charles and he was present in the building (WP).
The unnamed figure on the left is William, the son of Charles and his first wife, Diana, and the current Prince Of Wales. William’s son, George, on the right, is known as “Prince George Of Wales” (and his siblings similarly) rather than (as here) “George, Prince Of Wales.” The title “Prince Of Wales” is reserved for the heir to the UK throne, currently William.
“His Majesty King Charles III by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories, King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”
Devenish Drive, Monkstown, Newtownabbey, with funding from the Housing Executive (NI World) to replace the UDA hooded gunman seen in Open & Shut.
‘Four Lads Had A Dream’ is the name of Rangers song (youtube) but here the dream is not “to start a team” in Glasgow but to start a flute band in Monkstown, Newtownabbey. The result of the efforts of the four men – John Black, Freddie Maltman, Brian Crothers, Trevor Wilson – was Monkstown YCV flute band (Fb), formed in 1974 and so celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, 2024. To mark the occasion, the band has installed the series of boards shown here along a low wall in Cloyne Crescent; it will also visit the Somme and play at the Last Post ceremony which takes place at eight every evening at the Menin Gate (web).
The information board is transcribed (verbatim) at the bottom of this entry. A Bo Kerr from Rathcoole is also mentioned in the creation of also mentioned in the creation of the KAI tartans in Rathcoole – see the IWM link in The Famous.
The board showing words from a soldier’s diary, along with an image of soldiers marching, also appeared in the Village, south Belfast – see May I Never Hear Such Cries Again.
“Four lads had a Dream. Back in 1974, a group of lads were having a card school in the old rent office in Abbeytown Square. One of the lads, John Black, asked they group if they would go with him to meet Billy Greer about asking for help to start up a band. Freddie Maltman, Brian Crothers and Trevor Wilson all agreed to accompany him. So off they went to see Billy Greer, who gave them a look of disbelief and replied “son, do you realise what it would take to do this?” John replied “no.” After a while, Billy Greer said “leave it with me, I will go and get back to you.” A couple of weeks later, the lads once again met with Billy Greer, and he introduced them to a man named Robert ‘Bo’ Kerr.
The following week, Robert had brought a book with him and the amount of names in it was amazing. A lot of the people in the book were from Rathcoole. At this stage, Robert also brought down his brother, Brian ‘Bo’ Kerr, to help. The band managed to get a lend of some old side drums, some flutes and a bass drum. Roberts father also repaired some flutes for them. A lot of fundraising followed, such as street collections in the Monkstown area, and the community was very generous to the cause of the band. Robert ‘Bo’ Kerr was due to get married that year and he gave up his wedding fund money towards the purchase of four new side drums from Matchetts in Belfast and a bass drum from Willy Hewitts over in Sandy Row.
The bands first parade was an invite to Glenarm where Hughy Brown was the first band captain. The band numbers were rising, but it didn’t take too long to see who was going to make it and who wasn’t, and therefore the numbers fell slightly. John Black for one learnt his lessons very quickly to never lie to the band captain. Hughy Brown gave all the fluters a tune to learn at home, the next week they all arrived at practice and Hughy went along and asked, one by one, “well lads, did you learn The Ducks for me this week?” And they all replied “yes.” He picked out John Black to stand on the chair and play it. That was him in the bad books straight away as he had told lies and hadn’t learnt it! Hughy went mad and told him “Blackie, never in your life waste my time again if you want to stay in this band, don’t come back next week if you haven’t learnt what I give you!” After that, the flute corps was second to none.
Throughout the years the band has had its ups and downs like every other band we lost quite a few members due to being incarcerated during the troubles or by passing away. However, over the past few years we have went from strength to strength! The hard work and dedication from our members is second to none, with some of our members travelling from various locations in Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus, Shankill, East Belfast, Scotland and Liverpool.
This year 2024 we will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary with the purchase of a new uniform and a pilgrimage to the Battlefields of the Somme, culminating in playing at the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, this will be one of the milestones that Monkstown will proudly mark.”
“The Battle Of Messines June 1917. Men from the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and Royal Irish Rifles celebrating their victory at Wytschaete.”
“We surge forward. Bayonets sparkle and glint. Cries and curses rent the air. Chums fall, some without a word … and others … Oh, my God! May I never hear such cries again! There goes the YCV flag tied to the muzzle of a rifle. That man had nerve! Through the road just ahead of us we had crossed the sunken road. We could see khaki figures rushing the German front line. The Inniskillings had got at them.”
Discover Ulster-Scots (web) has added some more boards in north Belfast, joining the recent gallery of famous figures at Mountcollyer Avenue (see The Scots In Ulster).
Above, Alexandra Park Ave: “The Ulster Fry – Ulster-Scots put the Ulster into the Ulster Fry with our famous soda and potato farls. Farl is an Ulster-Scots word describing the quarter round shape of the breads.” Breakfast fries as we now think of them date back only to the Victorian period and became popular particularly after WWII (WP). Soda farls (and soda bread) go back further, to the 1830s and 1870s when baking soda began to be commercially manufactured and cheaply available (ACS). Recipes can be found at the Discover Ulster-Scots ‘Food Traditions’ page.
Below, from Upper Canning St: “Ulster-Scots distilleries made Belfast a global centre of whisky production. Historic Ulster-Scots brands like, Dunville’s, Mitchell’s and McConnell’s are making a comeback in the 21st century.” “Ulster-Scots also invented ginger ale and brown lemonade in Belfast. Ross’s and Cantrell & Coughran (C&C) were the pioneers, with Belfast ginger ale later taken worldwide by another Ulster-Scot who founded Canada Dry.” The labels shown use the “-y” spelling, perhaps in order to emphasise the Scottish association rather than the Irish. Cowan’s appear to have used both spellings (“whisky” and “whiskey”) in their labelling – see the gallery at Bloggin’ Fae The Burn. Dunville’s now appear to use the “-ey” spelling exclusively (web).
Finally, in North Queen St: “Ulster-Scots have been making Belfast a better place for over 400 years. Many of Belfast’s leading charitable, religious and educational institutions were founded by Ulster-Scots.” with images of BRA (James Crombie), Clifton House (possibly William Tennant is intended), the Linen Hall Library (a list of founders can be found on page 11 of this History), the Assembly buildings (of the Presbyterian church), and Queen’s (John Mowat).
Kai Johansen was a Danish international who played for Rangers from 1965-1970, most famously scoring the only goal in the 1966 Scottish Cup final against Celtic (WP). He retired in 1970 and went on to manage two teams in South Africa, as well as owning businesses, including pubs and tanning salons, in Denmark and Scotland (Herald). The pub mentioned in the board above is perhaps “Kai Johansen’s Bar” at 564 Govan Road, Glasgow (images at Follow Follow).
“Every week in Glasgow, to watch the boys in blue/We wanted to form a band, of us there was just a few./We sat in Johansen’s bar, sometimes, he joined us too./He treated us like his sons, and nobody understood why/But through this hospitality, we become adopted sons of Kai./Now we have our name, we will now make it stand./Known as Rathecoole’s finest, the Sons Of Kai flute band.”
The mural on the wall of Madden’s bar in the city centre has been updated. Fiddler Art Lundy and the “decommissioned” ashtray are retained, but much else has changed. (For the previous version, see Madden’s.)
Traditional Irish and Irish-language music features in multiple places: — a poster for new group Biird (ig) is in the mirror behind Art’s head (and next to an Acht Na Gaeılge fáınne (see #AchtAnois) and a Pride flag); — by his fingering hand is a poster for Féıle Na Gealaí (web); — the “Fine Art” in front of the pints is the cover of Kneecap’s (web) forthcoming album – DJ Próvaí’s familiar tricoloured balaclava can be seen on the side-door in the third image, below (see also their two murals in Beechmount, Incendiary Device and England Get Out Of Ireland); — the album cover to its right is the EP “Sásta A Bheıth Anseo” [Happy To Be Here] by Múlú (Mıaḋaċluġaın Ní Doṁnaıll | ig) which you can hear on youtube.
The other main change is the addition of two newspapers. In the Andersonstown News in Art’s pocket trumpets Cliftonville’s 3-1 victory over Linfield in the Irish Cup on May 4th (youtube highlights), while on the table a copy of The Irish News reports on DUP (now-former) leader Jeffrey Donaldson being prosecuted on charges of rape and sexual assault (BBC).
This is a new mural on boards celebrating boxing in the Turf Lodge area of west Belfast.
Belfast Boxers (ig) gives the names as (l-r) Eoin Hamill, Damaen Kelly, John Ireland, Dee Irving, Damien Fryers, Sean/Jim “Spike” McCormack, Sean McComb.
Hamill (the youngster on the far left) was knocked down and killed on the Springfield Road in 2020 (BelTel | BBC | Irish Times). John Ireland (third from left, with blue collar) died in a crash 2014 at age 20 (Belfast Media).
The family of “Andrew Jackson 1767-1845”, seventh president of the United States, hailed from Carrickfergus (Discover Ulster-Scots | Carrickfergus History) and there is a period cottage that functions as a museum on the site of the home from which his parents and two older brothers departed (Discover NI).
There is a Visual History page on Ulster-Scots murals. A series of murals was painted, beginning in 1999, under the title ‘Pioneers To Presidents’, the last of which was of Andrew Jackson in the lower Shankill in 2007. Why he was chosen as the subject of this new mural in Pinewood Avenue, Sunnylands, Carrickfergus, is as yet unknown.
Queen Elizabeth II died, aged 96, on September 8th, 2022, and is now (according to this board) queen of the angels in heaven (Matthew 28:2), which perhaps allows her to send other angels to Earth (Matthew 24:31) to deliver messages to chosen people.
Also included (below) from the same street is a memorial tarp to British soldiers in the Great War and WWII, including Vickers machine guns, Spitfire aeroplanes, and a WWI tank (perhaps a Mark V (Tank Museum)).
Paddy Duffy Collection 