These four images are all from Ross House at the entrance to Mount Vernon. They show a UVF gunman (slipping behind a security camera), a tiger mascot, YCV and UVF emblems, and graffiti at the front of the building.
Established in 2004, Cumann Na Fuıseoıge (The Lark) is “ag soláthar spórt Ghaelaıgh don phobal sa cheantar Coılın” [providing Gaelic games to the people in the Colin area]. The club is named after the image of the lark (and barbed wire) used by Bobby Sands in his 1979 article The Lark And The Freedom Fighter. The choice of emblem proved controversial – Slugger.
A Sınn Féın centenary (1905-2005) mural is added to the Éıre Nua Flute Band board (seen in 2004). Above them is a Sınn Féın board with Mao’s statement that “If there is to be a revolution, there must be a revolutionary party.” Both the flute band and Sınn Féın have internet addresses.
Three year-old Tyler Watson survived the crash in which both of his parents were killed by a “death driver” (rather than “joyrider”) near Ballymoney (BBC). For the original photograph, see the Extramural post on the version of this board on the Shankill, where the Watsons were from.
Three versions of the mural were painted, part of the campaign by Families Bereaved Through Car Crime (Fb). This one is on the Springfield Road, near where Debbie McComb was run over in 2000 (see Death Driving), and is dedicated by artist Frank (Lucas) Quigley to son Rossa Quigley who was struck by dangerous driver in April 2003 on the Cliftonville Road. Another was placed in north Belfast just below Cliftonville Road.
The 1995 film The Usual Suspects (which takes its title from Casablanca‘s “Round up the usual suspects”) was such a hit that – even nine years later – it (and its “line-up” scene – youtube) could be used as the basis for this “Collusion = state murder” mural on the Springfield Road, Belfast.
The spider in the bottom left was the central image in an Andersonstown Road mural. “Murder = murder = murder” (at the bottom) imitates Margaret Thatcher’s statement on the 1981 hunger strike: “Crime is crime is crime” (youtube).
Anti-drugs board in the Markets, Belfast, covering all the bases: “Goodbye marijuana, cocaine and crack/I’ve finally got my life on track/I don’t need you, you don’t need me/I feel good now that I’m free.” “1 out of every 4 people who die sniffing solvents are first time sniffers!” “LSD can make you very confused and scared. Some people never recover from the experience of having ‘a trip’.”5 tabs can damage your body by poisoning your liver. They can also lead to coma and even death.” “Cannabis can make you paranoid, sick and forgetful. Some people end up not being able to stop using it.”
The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) is a left-leaning unionist party founded in 1979 by Hugh Smyth, who served as Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1994. His successor as leader of the party (in 2002) was former UVF member David Ervine, who had been elected to the NI Assembly in 1998 but would die in January 2007.
“We are the pilgrims, master; we shall always go a little further.” Copy of a UVF Tamar Street mural (perhaps after that area was redeveloped) above Cheepers on the Newtownards Road, Belfast. Below that is the view from Chamberlain Street in 2008, looking out over the red-white-and-blue kerbstones.
“Unbowed, unbroken.” This is a version of the earlier Éıre/Ireland mural (depicted as a female in the centre of the mural) seen in 2005. Portraits of 18 local republicans are included, beginning with Charlie Monahan and Murtagh McAstocker. This mural is similar to the earlier one on the shop gable (which had 16 portraits).
The plaque to the left reads “Dedicated to the memory of the volunteers of B company 3rd battalion Belfast brigade Óglaıgh na hÉıreann who died fighting for an Irish socialist republic. Fuaır sıad bás ar son saoırse na hÉıreann.”
“I have hope, indeed. All must have hope and never lose heart. My hope lies in the ultimate victory of my people [for my poor people] – Bobby Sands, March 5th, 1981.” Robert Ballagh was commissioned by Sınn Féın to produce a piece for the 20th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike and came up with the ten doves escaping an H Block (see the Visual History of “Hawks” & Doves).