An Gorta Mór

2009 image of the (second – see C05209) Great Hunger mural on Ardoyne Avenue (see previously the mural in 2002) with the correct spelling of “emigration” restored (see 2004).

“They buried us without shroud or coffin” is a line from an unrelated Seamus Heaney poem Requiem For The Croppies. Produced by “Ardoyne Art & Environment Project”.

The plaque on the left is to Larry Marley.

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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
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Seán Mac Dıarmada

“Seán Mac Dıarmada 1883-1916 a bhí ına chónaí ı Sráıd de Buıtléır sa bhlıaın 1905.” [who was living in Butler Street in the year 1905].

Seán Mac Dıarmada was born in Leitrim, left for Glasgow at age 15, but after two years returned to Belfast in 1905 (working on the trams) and – according to the new mural above – spoke from the back of a coal lorry in Clonard Street, outside the Clonard branch of the Ancient Order Of Hibernians. Mac Dıarmada was for a short time an AOH member, before moving on to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, which led to his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising and execution on May 12th of that year.

Havana Way, north Belfast

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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
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People Of The Colin Area

The damaged Final Salute mural in Twinbrook is replaced by a memorial to IRA volunteers Gerard Fennell (killed by a British Army sniper in 1974), John Rooney (a week after Fennell), Bobby Sands, and Frankie Ryan (killed by a premature bomb explosion in St Albans). “Always remembered by the people of the Colin area.”

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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
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The One Stop Ulster Shop

Fulfilling all your marching band and Orange Order needs: the One Stop Ulster Shop in its former location half-way down Sandy Row (before becoming Living Tradition and then Sandy Row Marching Band Supplies). The Royal Banner of Scotland is included alongside St Andrew’s Saltire. Bands included along the awning for the shutters are Clydevalley Volunteers Glasgow, Millar Memorial Belfast, Ballynahinch Young Loyalists, MYC Newtownards, Skeogh Flute Band, ? Liverpool, Clydevalley Volunteers Larne, Crumlin Young Loyalists, Steeple Defenders Antrim, Ballee Blues And Royals, Pride of the Shore North Belfast, Ballysillan Volunteers, Pride of Shankill, Somme Volunteers Flute Band, Glenhugh Flute Band Ahoghill, Bridgeton Loyalists, Lower Ards Volunteers, Rising Sons East Belfast, Rising Sons Of The Somme Carrickfergus.

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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
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Bobby Jackson Mural

A mural depicting William’s conquest of Ireland, including the Crossing Of The Boyne (on the left) and the Siege Of Derry (on the right), was originally painted by Bobby Jackson (Senior) in the 1940s. In 1993, the wall on which the mural was painted was decaying and threatened by redevelopment (and having already been moved once, in the 1970s) and so it was destroyed and replaced, with a plaque in its side reading “The Bobby Jackson Memorial”. A new, very similar, mural was painted (?by Jackson Sr and/or Jackson Jr?) on boards in 1995 and is placed on the wall during the marching season. The Fountain, Londonderry.

The Bobby Jackson mural has its own Visual History page.

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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
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