BELFAST

BEYOND BELFAST

“North Belfast dockers, millworkers, shipyard workers – Titanic town 1912″.

The Titanic mural in north Belfast is now twelve years old; it is generally faded and peeling in several places, and the plaster filling a crack in the walls has fallen out (as can be seen in the images above and below). (For the mural previously, see X01139.)

Along the bottom are the names of various Belfast pubs and other businesses: The Waterloo, The Terminus, The Sportsman’s Arms, The White Hart, The Bowling Green, The City Arms, The Orpheus – York Street, Railway Bar – Canning Street [image from 1970], The Edinburgh Castle [the boat of the Union-Castle line, launched 1910, built at H&W?], York Street Mill, The Gibralter [sic] Bar [whose then-owner was killed in 1972], Ye Old Castle [a bar (and restaurant?) bombed in 1971], The White Lion.

St. Vincent Street, north Belfast.

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The South Belfast UDA/UFF commander John McMichael was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1987. In addition to organising a team of assassins in the 70s and 80s, he founded a Political Research Group and wrote two documents proposing an independent Northern Ireland. The memorial garden, shown in full in the image below, is just off Sandy Row, near the John McMichael Centre.

“There is no section of this divided Ulster community which is totally innocent or indeed totally guilty, totally right or totally wrong. We all share the responsibility for creating the situation, either by deed or by acquiescence. Therefore, we must share the responsibility for finding a settlement and then share the responsibility of maintaining good government.” (John McMichael 1948-1987) (See also: We Must Share The Responsibility)

The same thirteen names that appear on the South Belfast UDA A battalion “roll of honour” plaque in the McMichael memorial garden in City Way, off Sandy Row also appear in the small (4′ x 3′) reproduction of a mural (2005 M02408) from nearby Rowland Way, which was itself a repaint of an earlier (see 1995 M01183 and 2001 M01518) mural, though updated to note the “distinguished service” of Samuel Curry.

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“Save Sandy Row – open the bridge”. “Sensitive dismantling” of the Boyne Bridge began at the end of November (BBC), as part of the restructuring around the new Grand Central Station despite another protest from locals who allege that the bridge is an essential part of Sandy Row culture (see the entry Battle Of The Boyne Bridge in the Paddy Duffy Collection). (There was an earlier protest on November 5th (BBC); the images below confirm the Irish News‘s estimate of “several dozen”.)

However, the bridge’s demolition has become entangled with the traffic congestion currently dogging the city. Specifically related to the bridge, demolition work paused on the 5th of December because strategies to deal with the disruption to traffic had not been effected (News Letter). And more generally, it is claimed that the closure is contributing to the congestion (News Letter) which is affecting businesses in the city centre (News Letter) and in Sandy Row (BBC). So far, the only concrete step that has been taken to tackle the traffic problem is to allow taxis to use bus lanes (BBC).

For streetart at the new station, see Action At A Distance.

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“Fáılte chuıg otharlann Al-Shifa – hathaınmníodh R.V.H. i gcuımhne ar na foırne leıghıs agus ar na hothaır ar fad a maraíodh le linn chınedhíothú Iosrael sa Phalaıstín in 2023. R.V.H. renamed in memory of all medical staff and patients murdered during Israel’s genocide in Palestine in 2023.”

al-Shifa hospital is in Gaza City, Gaza. It was closed on April 1st (2024) after the hospital was raided (for a second time) by the IDF (WP).

The placard was mounted by BDS Belfast in March (Fb). The “Occupation no more” sticker on the adjacent pole is from the 1916 Societies (web).

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“Safety over shortcut – close the gate”: the Columbia Street gate is closed from 8:45 p.m. to 7:15 a.m., and the Flax Street gate on the other side of the Crumlin Road is closed from 9:30 to 6:30 (DoJ). The opening of both streets began in 2021 and 2022 (Irish News and Belfast Live | Belfast Media) but there has recently been aggro between children and youths from the two communities (CNR Ardoyne, PUL Woodvale) in the car-park of the Hillview shopping centre and the gate will close at 5 p.m. for the foreseeable future (BelTel via PressReader).

Columbia Street, west Belfast

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These images show the scene at Dunraven Court, a Choice (web | Fb) social housing community in east Belfast.

The main piece (above) shows photographs purporting to be of the 36th (Ulster) Division during WWI, above the title “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”/”It is Sweet and Honourable to die for one’s country” (which WWI poet Wilfred Owen called “the old lie“) and two epigrams: (left) “And you unborn then, remember that their luck, skill, and nerve where pushed to the limits and they were young like you” and (right) “They layed down the glory of their youth upon the altar of freedom”.

The first is a paraphrase of Cecil Day-Lewis’s poem in homage to the airmen of WWII’s Battle Of Britain, which ends: “And you, unborn then, what will you make of it—/This shadow-play of battles long ago?/Be sure of this: they pushed to the uttermost limit/Their luck, skill, nerve. And they were young like you.”

The second does not appear to be a quotation; it is perhaps inspired by Lincoln’s Letter To Mrs Bixby (WP), perhaps via the film Saving Private Ryan (youtube).

On the wall below the large piece are plaques to Cordner, Long, Bennett, and Seymour from the Troubles-era UVF – see Standing Guard – and to their right ‘Poppy Trail’ plaques of local WWI casualties Joseph Agnew, William Lowry, John Dornan, John Ritchie, William Reid, James Rea, and Robert Atkinson.

A little way into the complex we find a small memorial garden to two UVF volunteers, deceased post-Agreement: Lee Wilson and David Stewart.

h/t Alain Miossec

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