“There is no lie big enough to cover the shame of jailing two innocent men #JFTC2”. Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton were convicted of the 2009 murder of Constable Stephen Carroll (BBC), and sentenced to life with 25-year and 18-year minimums, respectively. The case is under review (Guardian | An Phoblacht).
This RNU (Fb) board also appeared on Northumberland Street in west Belfast.
Berwick Road, Ardoyne, north Belfast.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Commercial mural on the side of La Taqueria (web) on the Ormeau Rd, south Belfast, depicting a Calavera Catrina.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The paint-bombed version of the sign for Cregagh Street Gospel Hall remained in that state for over a decade, so long a time that this is how it is recognised by many and how it is reproduced in a postcard available in Born & Bred (web) in Ann St.
The image above (and of the shop display) are from October 2023; the image of the old sign is from January 2022. It was repainted in the summer of 2022.
The hall itself was constructed in 1938, on the site of a school, and Sunday service is still held (Precious Seed).
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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X08889 Courtesy of Seosamh Mac Coille
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The plaque above – “Ormeau Road in memory [of] Fergie” – is now somewhat incongruously above painted signage for a coffee-and-donuts shop (Bunelos | web) on the Ormeau Road, a commercial road which is also at the edge of the Ballynafeigh neighbourhood.
“Fergie” is perhaps Iain Ferguson, who died in 2021 (Belvoir & Ballynafeigh UPRG on Fb) and is remembered in a tarp on the side of the flats in Belvoir, shown below. (UPRG is affiliated with the UDA – hence the red hand and the six-pointed star in the plaque, alongside the flowers of the four nations – rose, shamrock, daffodil, thistle – and orange lily.)
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Copyright © 2023/2022 Paddy Duffy
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T01528 T01529 a true loyalist will be missed by all his friends in Belvoir & Ballynafeigh QS Somerset Street Belvoir Drive
There are lots of different fowl in the Waterworks but the swan is synonymous with the place. Belfasters have been saving up the heels of their loaves and taking them to “feed the swans” at the Waterworks since the reservoir was bought by the Corporation and modified to attact wildfowl in 1956 (Belfast Entries) – it provided an encounter with wild animals and was a free and fun family activity. Disease struck the swans in 1995 (Irish Times) and more than 50 died of avian flu during lockdown (November 2021-January 2022 – Belfast Media | Belfast Live has some upsetting photos) but there are still more than enough for the tradition to persist, though feeding them is now generally discouraged as an unnecessary human intervention.
As a tribute to the iconic bird and its long tradition in north Belfast, Danni Simpson (ig) and Mr Fenz (ig) have painted this larger-than-life swan on the side-wall of a coffee shop next to the upper reservoir.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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The Executive Office’s Communities In Transition programme aims to tackle “residual paramilitary activity and associated criminality” in eight areas of Northern Ireland, including the Northland/Sunnylands area of Carrickfergus, which until now has not had any street art. (It does have some community art, also sponsored by Communities In Transition.) They have sponsored this piece of street art by Aches (ig) — reproducing in overlapping triplicate a photograph of a local girl (Fb) taken by Derry photographer Megan Doherty (web) — in Drumhoy Drive, next to the ‘residual paramilitarism’ shown below: a Red Hand Commando board.
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This Castlemara, Carrickfergus, board is not remarkable so much for what it depicts — the new prince and princess of Wales, “baron & baroness of [sic] Carrickfergus” — but for what it replaces, namely, the Carrickfergus Eddie, which had been in place since (at least) 2000 — see Show No Mercy.
This means that there are no large murals of Eddie remaining; there are only some smaller versions of Eddie of boards or tarps. Eddie has his own Visual History page.
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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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This is the second (at least) iteration of an installation along Taylor’s Avenue, Carrickfergus, showcasing the Ulster-Scots heritage of Carrickfergus and its later contributions to the United Kingdom.
The wall is 60 metres/200 feet in length and can be divided into about ten distinct panels – notes on the different panels are given below, following the order of presentation of images, which show the entire wall moving from left to right.
The original, as seen on Street View, included boards showing the Pretani Isles/British Isles, QEII, and Tom Moore. As seen here, there are now boards to King Charles III, a vintage postage stamp, ‘The Siege Of Carrickfergus’ in 1689, and ‘The Barn Mills Fallen’ of WWI.
Fair Fa’ Ye (or “fair faa ye”) is an (Ulster-)Scots blessing, “fair fall you”, meaning roughly “good luck” (Bloggin Fae The ‘Burn | r/scots | Nelson McCausland).
The stained-glass is called the Dalaradia Window. For images and explanation, see Picts Exiled From Alba.
For Dalaradia, see Kingdom Of The Pretani and the Visual History page on Cú Chulaınn.
James Orr, the ‘Bard Of Ballycarry’, was a contemporary of Robert Burns and a United Irishman. It does not appear that he wrote a poem with the line “I wish I was in Carrickfergus”.
Daniel Cambridge won his VC for service in the Crimean War (WP) and James Crichton for service in WWI (WP).
CarrickfergusHistory includes “the oldest know map of Carrickfergus” from 1560, employing the spelling “Kragfargus”.
The 2/6 postage stamp featuring Carrickfergus Castle was one of four in a “Castle series” in 1955 (WP).
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“Resistance to IRA demands – “Every word spoken in Irish is like a bullet being fired in the struggle for Irish freedom” – Ulster says no to an ILA.” The precise wording and the author of the quotation are unclear. Nelson McCausland of the DUP gives it as “Now every phrase you learn is a bullet in the freedom struggle” and attributes it to Sınn Féın’s Pádraıg Ó Maolchraoıbhe in May 1982 (BelTel | Nelson’s View). The Irish language is not, of course, the exclusive property of militant republicanism, and, although the IRA has ceased its campaign and decommissioned its weapons, it is used here in conjunction with an image of a gunman firing an assault rifle in order to provoke fear against an Irish Language Act. The bill – enacted by Westminster rather than Stormont – became law last (2022) December (BBC). The poster dates from 2022 or 2021.
See previously: A Tale Of Two Protests | Acht Anoıs.
Below are “PSNIRA” targets and an old Leo Varadkar poster – see A Return To Violence.
Beechfield Avenue, Carrickfergus
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Paddy Duffy Collection 