“The Shamrock supports Kneecap”. Kneecap member Mo Chara (Lıam Óg Ó hAnnaıdh) appeared in court (in London) last week to face charges of displaying a flag of a proscribed organisation (Hezbollah). He was released on bail and will return on August 20th. (BBC | AP) In the meantime, the group appeared in front of 10,000 fans on the West Holts stage at Glastonbury on Saturday (June 28th) despite criticism from UK prime minister Keir Starmer (BBC).
The Shamrock Sport & Social Club (Fb) in Ardoyne is running a promotion by which people who post their selfies in front of the new mural in supoprt of Kneecap on social media can claim a bottle of Le Grá lager (web).
“1st Shankill Somme Association [Fb] roll of honour. In memory of our esteemed past members. Lest we forget.” The Association celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in February of this year (2025) and celebrated with a march from the leisure centre up to the garden of reflection next to the Shankill graveyard (Fb). The new retrospective board above shows members of the Association at trips to various WWI landmarks across the years.
Also included is an image of the roll of honour to the left of the main memorial, which now has some new names and is topped by a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. For Joe Coggle see S Company, C Company.
The previous tribute to Duke Elliott was installed in 2013 as the houses in Columbia Street were being rebuilt. Ernie “Duke” Elliott came from the Woodvale area (Leopold Street) and was a founder member of the Woodvale Defence Association in 1971, which was later folded into the UDA. He was also a Marxist. He was killed at age 28 in a pub brawl in December 1972 in a dispute over weapons (WP | Tele | Watching The Door).
The plaque “dedicated to the officers and members of ‘B’ Company WDA (UFF)” has been retained. Also included is an image of the plaque that was added (c. 2022) to the main mural, commemorating Jackie Parsons.
Ohio Street, Woodvale, west Belfast
Buster Adams, Noel Clements, Tommy Aiken, Allistair Cousins, Billy Andrews, Irene Craig, Davy Armstrong, Drew Crawford, Fred Bailie, John Crossett, Wilbur Barnes, Tommy Dinsmore, Mark Barr, Jimmy Dowie, Sam Black, Tony Duff, Tommy Black, Ray Dummigan, Tommy Boyd, Tom Edgar, Davy Bryson, Ernie Elliot, Jimmy Carberry, Brian Faulkner // Billy Fenton, Tommy Hill, Hedgie Ferguson, Trevor Hill, Billy Gardner, Keek Holmes, Lewis Gilbert, Tommy Howells, Billy Graham, Bertie Howells, Travis Grey, Jim Hutchinson, Dennis Grey, Geordie Johnston, Geordie Hall, Tom Johnston, Jimmy Hall, Maurice Kavanagh, Stephen Hamilton, John Kennedy, Bobby Harvey, John Kiltie, Billy Higginson
Geordie King, Lee McKeag, Hugh Linton, Betty McMillan, Billy Little, Bob McMillan, Harry Lockhart, Robert McMillan, Rab Lockhart, Norman McMillan, Drew McAllister, George McMurray, William McBride, Jimmy Millar, Bobby McCade, Archie Millar, Tommy McCormick, Victor Moody, Joe McCann, Wesley Morrison, John McCrea, Graham Murdock // Jonny Nelson, Tommy Totten, Freddie Parkinson, Billy Thompson, David Parker, Phillip Thompson, Jackie Parsons, Mark Turner, Bobby Patterson, Jimmy Welshman, Ned Pollock, Lou West, Charlie Quinn, Stanley West, Ray Riley, Cecil Williamson, Jackie Robinson, Silver Wilson, George Selby, Tucker Yates, Sammy Swain, Sandy Wright
Here are only three of many painted utility boxes that have been recently painted as part of the on-going Belfast Canvas project, begun in 2020.
These three pieces are … ‘Hang In There’ by CG Chimp (Chaingun on ig) on the Holywood Road in east Belfast, ‘I (Heart) Pool!’ by PaperSleeve/Niamh McWilliams (web) on Donegall Road in south Belfast, and an abstract piece by Bláthnaıd Ní hAogáın (ig) in University Square, Belfast city centre.
For about 140 painted boxes, from the Belfast Canvas project and otherwise, see the Visual History page for the boxes.
The image above shows a unified and wider view of the two pieces seen previously in Bloomfield House and In All Theatres Of Conflict: on the left, a board marking the centenary of the Ulster Volunteers’ ‘Larne Gun-Running’; on the right, a board commemorating the casualties from the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI; above them both are small boards from the ‘Poppy Trail’ collection of deceased locals.
“Break the stigma – be kind to your mind” – mental-health messaging by Pigment Space (ig) on the shutters of the Walk Inn Charity Shop, Holywood Road, east Belfast – next to Forever Changes (Bill Harris hair salon) and The Holywood Arches (Arches café), and across from Be Your Own Kind Of Beautiful (Norah Mitchell flowers).
“Welcome to Maghera”. These images are of the lockdown-era art on the public bathrooms in Maghera, with a variety of mental-health messages: “Don’t pretend. Don’t bottle it up. You are good enough”, “No matter what you do, you will allways [sic] be forgiven”, “Our mind’s our own”, “Mask your face, not your feelings”, “Mental health matters”, “Unlock skills in lockdown”,
Charles Thomson was born in Maghera in 1729 and moved to North America in 1739. He served as the secretary of the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. He helped design both the front and back of the nation’s Great Seal in 1782. (WP)
He is honoured in his home town by the board shown here. Thomson’s design for the reverse of the seal – the all-seeing eye over an unfinished pyramid (WP) – appears in the eagle’s left-hand wing, and his preliminary sketch, with wing-tips pointed downward (WP), in the right-hand wing.
Text of the information panel: “The Final Design of the Great Seal – June 20, 1782. On June 13, 1782, Congress asked Charles Thomson to come up with a suitable design for America’s Great Seal. With the reports and drawings of the three committees before him, he set to work. Thomson had served the past eight years as the Secretary of the Continental Congress where he acquired a reputation for fairness, truth, and integrity. Well-versed in the classics, he was once a Latin master the Academy of Philadelphia. Although today he is not a well-known founder, Charles Thomson was at the heart of the American Revolution. Thomson incorporated symbolic elements from all three committees with ideas of his own to create a bold and elegant design. He made a sketch and wrote a description of his preliminary design. For the front of the Great Seal, Thomson drew an American bald eagle and for the centrepiece he a [sic] placed the shield upon the eagle’s breast. Thomson envisioned an eagle “on the wing and rising.” In the eagle’s right talon is an olive branch. In its left, a tightly drawn bundle of arrows. Thomson said these symbols represent “the power of peace and war.” In the eagle’s beak, he placed a scroll with the first committee’s motto: E Pluribus Unum ‘Out of Many, One’. For the crest above the eagle’s head, Thomson used the radiant constellation of thirteen stars suggested by the second committee. He described the light rays as “breaking through a cloud.” For the reverse side of the Great Seal, Thomson used Barton’s (third committee) suggestion: an unfinished pyramid with the eye of Providence in its zenith, but added a triangle around the eye (like the first committee did). He also created two new mottos: Novus Ordo Seclorum ‘A New Order of the Ages’ and Annuit Coeptis ‘Providence has Favoured Our Undertakings’. After consulting with William Baron, the position of the eagle was changed to “displayed” (wings spread with tips up) and the chevrons on the shield were changed to the vertical stripes we see today.”
Korda’s famous photograph of the 31-year-old Che Guevara was taken in Havana, Cuba, in 1960, and was turned into the ubiquitous two-tone poster by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick in 1968. (For a more complete history of both the photo and the print, see the Visual History page on the influence of Jim Fitzpatrick.) This very faithful reproduction of Fitzpatrick’s Che is in Glen Road, Maghera.
“Marcella”, in the bottom right, might be the name of the artists; Bobby Sands used his sister’s name – “Marcella” – to sign the pieces that he wrote for newspapers outside Long Kesh.
Paddy Duffy Collection 