Which reminds me…. Platform for Change’s driving force Robin Wilson has produced a corrective to the notion that the lessons of the NI conflict are easily exportable. Like myself, Robin is associated with the Constitution Unit. He introduced his new book in a CU blog which I here reproduce. The water crisis in Northern Ireland [...] read our review »
Here’s a great review of a fascinating book (H/T reader Rory) on how the Internet is destroying our capacity for intelligent, focused and critical thought. It opens thus: …here is the news that Ulin brings in this slim, meandering book: that reading is “an act of contemplation”; that such an act becomes more difficult in [...] read our review »
The nod and wink politics of Ireland’s last two or three decades as practised par excellence by Bertie, Albert and Charlie is ultimately what has the Republic in the stew it’s in. Don’t get me wrong, the effective monitoring of those exercising of power does not demand full disclosure of everything all the time. But [...] read our review »
There is, indeed, a fair bit of projection; possibly some embarrassment that the scenes exist. If they weren’t there MP would not be able to record them. They are an historical legacy and i hope MP continues with his recordings.
I’m a Unionist and every time I walk up Sandy Row that particular part – with the demolished mural – always strikes a cord. It’s like the metaphorical wall that paramilitaries built around their communities separating the people from the rest of planet earth has been broken down.
MP’s photo says to me that though the walls of the past have mostly come down the culture and tradition of the people continues.
Though I’m probably reading to much into it – but I certainly don’t view it as a negative or sectarian photograph.
youngpolitico
The separation notion struck me also. Something about it speaks not just to isolation but to a sense of self-imprisonment – of the mind, as much as of space – the claustrophobia, the control, the limitations within as well as the limitations of the immediate environment. One hopes that the obvious decay is indicative of the decay of exactly that sense. The flags, for me, however suggest that for as long as they remain important the broken wall can always be rebuilt, the figure on the wall can once again return to life. The centrality of the flags however is not of course unrelated to the underlying decay in the image as a whole.
Be interesting to replicate the picture with the same frame, angle and perspective, say, five or ten years from now.
Wee Buns
I believe that plant is Rosebay Willowherb. Also known as Fireweed because of its habit of springing up in burnt landscapes. Perhaps this is the symbolism MP is aiming at. The leaves are said to be rather bitter.
The flag on the right makes me think of Rory McIlroy.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/vehicles-hijacked-and-set-alight-16020523.html?action=Popup&gallery=no
nun…is that what the photo’s actually says to you? or are you projecting views to accommodate the subtext of what you think you want to see?
Sandy Row is held with great affection amongst ordinary decent protestants and there may be a little shame or embarrassment when looking at the photo.
I’d say most people who live there are ordinary and decent. I don’t feel unsafe walking around there, there are very few gangs of kids roaming around intimidating people in the way you might find elsewhere. And Truffles is the best bakery anywhere in Belfast. Show up there any morning and get yourself a cream bun. And the sausage rolls are top notch.
Inner city communities like this need political leaders who will explain that this bonfire business damages the community and needs to be better regulated and controlled.
BTB
The former. It saddens me.
Oops, my comment is still awaiting approval. If you know the right sites to use, you can post your own photos, but I don’t think I’m allowed to tell you all what sites to use.
nun… its says to me ‘it looks like rain’
BTB
Glad it sings so harmoniously to you, who could possibly have guessed that you were quite so pronouncedly Jungian.
babyface finlayson
thanks for the correct plant name!
Wee Buns
You’re welcome. I rarely know anything. If it had only been in east belfast… I was working on a poor pun about botany on the mount
Babyface & Weebuns – the Rosebay Willowherb/Fireweed used to grace the old bombsites in London for decades though it has begun to die out now, apparently it needs disturbed ground to flourish. I had some grow profusely for several years on an area mechanically dug in 2004, though sparse now, a glorious sight.
Nun…not really, philosophy is only as good as the philosopher, given that the dominate part of the pictorial is the sky and as us fermanagh men have some experience of liquid precipitation, one does not need to be james hillman to hold such views….
beeteebee
Suggest that one needs to get beyond the confines of dreary steeples a little more often kid; after all, as your boy Hillman said, “you don’t know what you’re going to get into when you follow your bliss”.
.
babyface and tuatha
A similar looking purple plant rampant along the west coast on wasteland is valerian, but ‘disturbed ground’ is a winner description for NI.
Botany politics: a whole new field of wonder.
nunascleverasme… i am not sure that winston ever visited so i wouldn’t set too much store in his descriptions. as for your travel guidance if i am allowed to reciprocate prehaps i can suggest where your good self can go…
Bots out I say.
Don’t know about disturbed ground, more like the waste land.
bee tee bee
‘Prehaps’ you can my dear, ‘prehaps’ you can. Then again….