“I’m just a young fella from Andytown who didn’t give up.” In May (2024) Anthony (“Anto”) “The Apache” Cacace (ig) won the IBF super featherweight title with a victory over Joe Cordina in Saudi Arabia (BelTel). To honour this feat, a mural was painted in South Link, Andersonstown, with Cacace holding the both the IBF and IBO belts. Cacace went to Holy Child primary and starting boxing at the age of 10 at Oliver Plunkett’s (Fb). His father Tony is from Naples, Italy – hence the Italian flag on the right.
On September 21st, Cacace will defend his IBF title, fighting against Josh Warrington in Wembley Stadium (BelTel).
The two passages cited here have been cited before on the side wall at the junction of the Limestone Road and N Queen St, with images of Orange symbols and Union Flags, in order to promise that Your Kingdom Will Endure Forever. That theme has now been invoked in upper Tiger’s Bay, to celebrate the latest king (Charles III) of the everlasting kingdom demarcated by the shields of the “four nations” in the corners of the main gable, Northern Ireland included.
The people in question in the second book of Samuel are the people of Israel but as with previous scriptural references on the lower wall (Lamentations | Chronicles | Revelations | Psalms | Genesis), the Protestant people in Ireland and Britain are under discussion (though they might also refer to contemporary Israel).
In the King James version, 2 Samuel 7:10-16 the prophet Nathan is speaking to David: “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.”
In Luke 1:31-33, an angel is speaking to Mary: “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
“By not voting, these people win. Fight back, vote unionist.” “These people” are: lawyer Pat Finucane, who was assassinated by the UDA in 1989 (far left panel); Shankill bomber Seán Kelly (WP) (second and third panels, with a 2017 BelTel quote about Kelly canvassing for Finucane); John Finucane, the incumbent Sınn Féın MP for Belfast North (fourth panel, with Gerry Kelly, MLA and previously unsuccessful candidate in Belfast North), and Gerry Adams (fifth panel, with Kelly and Finucane).
In the 2019 election, both the UUP and SDLP did not field candidates in Belfast North, and Sınn Féın’s John Finucane won over the DUP’s Nigel Dodds. In this election, the SDLP is fielding a candidate while the UUP is not; however, recent changes in the constituency boundary are predicted to favour nationalists (Bangor Dub | Slugger) and Finucane is generally odds-on favourite to win (OddsChecker).
A very similar tarp was mounted on the Shankill (part of which is in the Belfast North constituency) in 2019 (see Steeped In Blood). See also: Sinn Fein-IRA’s Golden Boy.
“Joseph, 23” is Joseph Burns, from north Belfast, who died in 2014 of a cardiac arrest. This is one of a dozen British Heart Foundation murals across the UK featuring victims below the age of 35 (Belfast Media | BelTel | Belfast Live). The other murals in the series – in Birmingham (Wolverhampton), Cardiff (Abertysswg), Chesterfield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London (Essex, West Drayton), Newcastle, Nottingham, Southampton (x2) – are tied to the person’s support for a national soccer team (BBC | BHF).
“This is Joseph. He had his whole life ahead of him. A life full of hopes and dreams. But those dreams were sadly snatched away when he died. Each week, 12 young people are lost to sudden cardiac death in the UK. Only with your support can be fund the lifesaving scientific research that will help put a stop to this tragic reality. Please donate today.”
Love Hearts turn 70 years old in 2024 – they were originally included in crackers for the Christmas season in 1954. Over the years, the messages on them have changed, and various specialty versions have been produced, including for Prince William’s 21st (in 2003) and a recent collaboration with YoungMinds with affirmative messages (Swizzels | WP). The messages on these “Love tHeArts” – imagined by FGB (ig) in North Street, Belfast city centre – are perhaps less “Marry me” and “Be mine” and more “Fund me” and “Follow me on Instagram”.
See also Eat To The Beat for another Swizzels sweet – the drumstick – by FGB.
Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen’s (web | ig) third piece in Belfast is in Crocus Street, in Beechmount, west Belfast, in conjunction with the Beechmount Residents’ Collective, which has images of the launch on June 23rd (ig). It replaces the vandalised-and-repaired lower part of the pro-immigrant mural seen in In Search Of A Better Life. In the mural, both an olive tree and slender Easter lilies emerge from the rubble. On these a new society can be built.
For Spateen’s first piece, in Kent Street in the city centre, see Anatomy Of Oppression.
The scaffolding has been down from this obviously incomplete mural in Kilcooley, Bangor, and work on it seems to have ceased. The reasons for its abandonment are unclear.
A black street sign out of shot to the right (which can be seen in the third image, as well as a UDA emblem at the top) reads “Humber Street” – Humber Street was in east Belfast, at the top of Dee Street. We have not been able to locate this or other photographs of barricades in Humber Street. The period is presumably c. 1972, when the UDA set up no-go areas in Belfast (Pathé video; AP videos: one | two | three).
The other mural, on the left of the wide shots, is to East Belfast UDA brigadier Tommy Herron. As can be seen in the earliest in-progress image, below, the mural replaces the North Down Defenders mural.
The “completed” images, above, are from June 30th; work began at least two months previously.
The entry Old Carrick Hill shows the mural of ‘Carrick Hill in yesteryear’ from Stanhope Street. Around the corner in Regent Street there are the fifteen printed boards shown here. From left to right (top to bottom in this entry) they depict … Park Street; Rafferty’s Bar; The Tea Bar, Carrick House; Unity Flats; Alton Utd, FC (founded in 1921, played in the Falls League, won the 1923 Free State Cup Final – Bohs Sporting Life); All in a day’s outing; Playing marbles; Night-time camping; 1976 Mandiville dart team; Mary McCusker & Kitty Spotwoods; Burns family, Wall Street; Maggie Jane Largey & Mary Ann Largey; Carrick Castle public house; Richard & Alan Crean; The Old & The New.
Salmon disappeared from the Lagan in the late 1700s. The river was restocked in 1991 (CFB) and some salmon have been seen and caught since then (Flickr | Fly Forums). (The angling season is March to October – NIDirect | DAERA.) A more reliable salmon sighting is the Big Fish, which has been in place since 1999 (Atlas Obscura), to which we can now add this Glen Molloy (ig) painting in Palestine Street, in the Holylands, south Belfast.
The large gable at the junction of the Limestone Road and North Queen Street in north Belfast – most recently the site of a celebration of Rangers’ 55th title – see We Are The People – is being repainted, beginning with the low wall in front, as shown above. The side wall on the right of the wide shot below dates back to 2017 (see Your Kingdom Will Endure Forever) and the scriptural references on it also appear in the new installation in Mervue Street – see I Will Plant Them, That They May Dwell In A Place Of Their Own. It’s possible that a King Charles installation is in progress here, too.
The final image is of another Tiger’s Bay territorial marker in Upper Canning Street.
Paddy Duffy Collection 