The RNU mural supporting Palestine has been cleaned up to remove graffiti calling Sınn Féın “traitors and touts” (RNU Belfast Fb).
Pantridge Road, replacing the boards seen in Conscience.
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Here is a gallery of small boards on flower boxes in “the Village Green community park of remembrance”:
“The Protestant faith we will maintain. Your culture needs you. Join your local band, Orange lodge, Apprentice Boys, Royal Black historical group”, with Kitchener pointing at the viewer;
“Deserted – Well, I can stand alone!“;
“Ulster Day, 28th September, 1912“;
“No Home Rule. Let our flag run out straight in the wind. The old red shall be floated again. When the ranks that are thinned shall be thinned. When the names that are twenty are ten“;
– Edward Carson and the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1913;
– All nine counties of Ulster are “Hands up!” “against Home Rule”.
The Village, south Belfast
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This is work by Ona Salvador (ig) on the shutters of Skull And Bones Tattoo Society (web) in North Street, replacing the sign for the tattoo convention (see Inkology). Salvador also did a piece in Union Street for HTN25.
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Roden Street was divided in two when the Westlink was built along the path of the Blackstaff to join the M1 at Broadway with the Grosvenor Road. (This portion of the Westlink opened in 1981; a Klaus Fröhlich photograph of a blocked-off Roden Street on the CNR side, looking towards Divis, is included at the end of the post.) The vintage mural in the top left of the first board (above) was in Clifford Street and is now on the Grosvenor Road (CNR) side of the motorway. (The mural can be seen in Visual History 01.)
From the second board, the “RSD” (Roden Street Defenders [private Fb]) red hand was in Iverna Street, and the King Billy was in Rockland Street.
In the fourth board, the red fist in the top right (which famously had five fingers and two thumbs) was in Roosevelt Street, which is the location of these boards. Immediately below it is the A Battalion mural at the south (Donegall Road) end of Roden Street.
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“Defend the right to protest”, specifically to protest the treatment of Palestinians in Gazan.
The UK government introduced legislation in 2023 to prevent and tackle protests that might cause “more than minor disruption” to the community (Reuters), in contravention, according to Amnesty International, of Article 11 of the Human Rights Act. The High Court ruled against the government in 2024 and its appeal was rejected by the Appeals Court in May, 2025 (Reuters). The latest (late July 2025) Crime And Policing policy paper can be found at gov.uk.
Specifically related to protests about Gaza, in June the group Palestine Action was declared a terrorist organisation by UK government, because of the group’s “criminal damage in support of a cause” – specifically, its attacks on the facilities of the RAF and various weapons’ manufacturers; the group’s initial appeal was heard in the High Court last week (BBC) and the judge yesterday (July 30th) ruled that the group could challenge the designation (Independent).
Shown above is a hand-painted cloth sign on the railings of the Waterworks in north Belfast.
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“How cool is it that the same God that created oceans and mountains and galaxies looked at you and thought the world needed one you too”, “Be the light”, “God is love”, “Let your light shine”.
Uplifting religious messages in Sixmilewater Park, below Main Street, Ballyclare.
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The memorial wall in Erskine Park, Ballyclare, marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day – May 8th, 2025 – with a pair of printed boards wrapping around the corner of the low wall.
For views of the gable and the low wall with armed-forces emblems and plaques to Girvan and Erskine, see The Men From Ballyclare.
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Modern UVF volunteers in balaclavas stand with heads bowed on either side of the Ulster Tower in Thiepval, standing among orange lilies and red poppies.
On the left the 10th Scottish Rifles (AWM) commence a raid, below the emblem of the Ulster Volunteer Force, and on the right, the Royal Fusiliers appear to march off to war in a press photograph (Flickr), below the emblem of the 36th (Ulster) Division.
In Grange Drive, Ballyclare, on the same as wall, and using part of the frame from, a previous UDA board: Young Guns.
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RJ “Mickey” Wilson (d. 2022) joins Robert Bennett, Joe Long, Milky Cordner, and Squeak Seymour in the UVF memorial garden in Fraser’s Pass. Wilson is also remembered in Ballybeen – see Armed And Ready Again. The other four are remembered in an adjacent mural – see East Belfast UVF.
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Sightings of seals in the Lagan go back to the late 80s (DCTours) and became so much a part of the city’s culture that they (under the singular familiar ‘Sammy the seal’ standing in for multiple individuals and generations) have been celebrated in a set of three sculptures on Donegall Quay near the Big Fish (geograph | Belfast Live). Joining the sculptures is a new piece of street art by HMC (web), painted for Hit The North 2025 on an exterior wall of the Laganside bus centre.
In-progress images … May 3rd:
May 2nd:
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Paddy Duffy Collection 