“My players are national heroes and have achieve immortality in Northern Ireland folklore …” – Lawrie Sanchez, NI manager. Sanchez was manager from January 2004 to April 2007, when he left to take over Fulham. Under his direction, the team scored notable victories over Spain in a Euro 2008 qualifier and a one-nil victory over England in a World Cup qualifier at Windsor Park. The goals from these games are included in this youtube video of the song We’re Not Brazil; We’re Northern Ireland.
With sponsorship from the East Belfast Historical And Cultural Society.
“Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998 the following concessions have been given :- Republicans: Prisoners released, facilities at Westminster, visas to the USA, army-police stations closed, home battalions of the RIR disbanded, on the runs allowed to return, Columbia 3 remain at liberty, bias against Protestants in employment practices, Sean Kelly child murdered set free, increased [sic] in investment, access to shared roads denied, loyalist culture eroded, £26.5 million pay off. The loyalist people of east Belfast demand:- equality, parity of esteem, shared access to main arterial routes, no bias in employment practices, cultural equality, equal investment, effective accountable policing. This is not equality, this is not parity of esteem, this is not what the Good Friday Agreement was meant to deliver.” Or, in short “Them’uns get everything and we get na’hin.”
Lord Street mural the ERII’s golden (50th) jubilee in 2002. The building on the left is unknown (please get in touch if you can identify it); the previous Ledley Hall school (now Ledley Hall youth club) is on the right.
“Remember collusion victims”. The graffiti refers to a Gaelic football game played between local club St Brigid’s and the PSNI. It was the first time the PSNI squad had played a team from the north (Irish Times | BelTel).
The “comm” from Bik [McFarlane, OC in Long Kesh] to Brownie [Gerry Adams] upon the death of Bobby Sands was posted on the wall in Dromara Street in the wake of Richard O’Rawe’s allegations that Sınn Féın leadership had turned down an offer from the Thatcher government that might have ended the strike after four deaths (Guardian).
“We have nothing to offer but blood, tears, and sweat. Whatever the cost maybe, we shall fight on the beach’es [sic], we shall fight in the fields and on the street’s [sic]. We shall never surrender.” A message from “E.B. [east Belfast] Loyalists” in Castlereagh Parade, combining two speeches of Winston Churchill’s:
1940-05-13: “I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined the government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask: What is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us, to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.”
1940-06-04: “We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. ”