This is and old (2009) repaint of the mural in the Markets to IRA volunteers: They are: Tony Nolan, Joseph Downey, Frank Fitzsimons, Joey Surgenor, Paul Marlowe, Jim Templeton, and Brendan Davison.
See previously 2002 and the paint-bombed 2006.
The photograph on which this mural is based can be found in this entry on a 1981 Rosnareen mural.
Friendly Street, Belfast
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One of the first casualties of the Easter Rising, on the evening of Good Friday, was Belfast-born Charles Monahan (Charlie Monahan, Cathal Ó Monacháın/Ó Muıneacháın), who died along with Con Keating and Daniel Sheehan in a motor accident in Kerry, when their car – which only had one headlamp – was driven off a pier. His body was not found until October 30th. The driver, Tommy McInerney – shown here studying a map – survived. This mural is in the Markets; Monahan is also claimed by east Belfast and a 2006 mural to him was painted on Mountpottinger Road (Visual History).
“Born in Riley[‘s] Place in the Market area of Belfast, Charles was one of many people who left Belfast to take part in the events leading up to the Easter Rising. Charles[‘s] role was to meet up with 3 other vols and help guide Roger Casement (top left) land a ship full of weapons. On the 21st April, 1916, the driver took the wrong road and drove off the pier into the Laune at Ballykissane. Charles, 37, drowned along with two of his comrades.”
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“Saint Malachy’s G.A.C. is more than a club. It’s our club. To participate is to represent your community and an expression of your cultural identity.”
This is the 2021 repaint of the mural celebrating Gaelic games in the parish of St. Malachy/Naomh Maolmhaodhóg, in the Markets area of Belfast. The parish church – featured in the top centre – has a celebrated fan-vaulted ceiling (WP). This mural, on the other hand, features a bay window.
A plaque to “Gerard “Jock” Davison” has been added in the top right corner.
“Conaíonn [Cónaíonn] muid ı scath dá chéıle” is a straightforward rendering of the epigrammatic “Ar scáth a cheıle a mhaıreann na daoıne”, which was included in the previous version – see Cultural Identity.
Welsh Street, Markets, south Belfast
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Two men fence while a third watches on; nature in the form of a deer lies dead on the floor. This is a 2012 mural by Cork artist Conor Harrington (whose blog is called ConorSaysBoom) in Hill Street (below the Duke Of York) – for being ten years old, it is holding up fairly well but some graffiti has been scrawled across it along the bottom (as is true on the adjacent street art, PANG’s Past Masters and Psychonautes’s portrait of Jay Adams).
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Compared to the UVF, the UDA more strongly detect an existential threat to loyalism and evince a siege mentality that provokes the need for armed resistance. Hence the more frequent presence of armed gunmen in UDA murals (which is also due in part to the UVF being able to “re-image” around the Ulster Volunteers and the Somme). With Brexit and the Protocol, however, armed gunmen have recently been appearing more frequently in UVF murals – see, for example, If Our Shores Are Threatened | Bang Up To Date | Our British Identity.
“Springmartin–Highfield–Glencairn Ulster Defence Association est. 1971. Defending freedom from hate.” As the companion mural (We Will Take Nothing Less) makes clear, the hate is coming from a “fascist republican enemy” (“Sinn Féin/IRA”, presumably) and the government of Ireland. Graphically, this mural is the same as the previous one on this wall: Under The Protection Of The UDA.
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An estimated 100,000 people congregated at Craigavon House on the 23rd of September, 1911, to hear Edward Carson’s inaugural speech as Unionist leader (McNeill Ch. 4). In his speech he said “Our demand is a simple one. We ask for no privileges, but we are determined that no one shall have privileges over us. We ask for no special rights, but we claim the same rights from the same government as every other part of the United Kingdom. We ask for nothing more; we will take nothing less”. Ten years later, in 1921, Northern Ireland was created and it has survived to reach its centenary, despite (according to this mural) “100 years of fighting a fascist republican enemy sponsored by the Irish state.”
Highcairn Drive, Highfield
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The re-painted mural to plastic-bullet victim Julie Livingstone was rededicated on October 15th. For the previous mural, see 2010. “The Stolen Child – Come away, O human child/To the waters and the wild/With a faery hand in hand/For the world’s more full of weeping/Than you can understand… – WB Yeats.”
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Monkstown WWI mural in four quadrants showing the emblem of the 36th (Ulster) Division, a soldier at the cross in the Thiepval Cemetery, soldiers feeding a belt of ammunition into a Vicker’s machine gun, and others loading a Stokes mortar.
Devenish Drive, Monkstown
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The Portrush Flyer is a steam-engine train service operating (since 1973) between Belfast and Portrush on Sundays during the summer months. The mural, in Ards Park, Monkstown, replaces a UFF mural dating back to 2001. Shown is engine ‘No. 85’ (which is just one of the engines that have been used; for images of ‘No. 171’, ‘No. 4’, ‘No. 85’, and ‘No. 131’ dating back to the 1970s, see SteamTrainsIreland) passing under one of the “new” viaducts (for more info, see Geograph). For an image of the mural’s 2019 launch, see Newtownabbey Times.
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Paddy Duffy Collection 