I found this in a photo album someone had of pictures they had taken of murals in Northern Ireland. Most of the murals in Northern Ireland, as far as I can tell, seem to be painted by the Ulster loyalists and generally depict the UFF (Ulster Freedom Fighters) soldiers in intimidating poses, surrounded by all sorts of symbols and slogans.
And then there’s this one painting - extremely professional-looking, too - of what appears to be a big bulldog, grabbing and screaming at a little cat.
The bulldog seems to be wearing some kind of ceremonial Ulster dress uniform.
I can only infer that the little cat is supposed to represent Ireland.
Is this assessment correct?
Is this a parody of some already-existing cartoon, or were these animal characters invented by the artist’s imagination?
The cat is Tom, and I believe the bulldog is Spike, from Tom And Jerry.
I don’t know about the ‘Ulster uniform’, but I assume the bulldog represents England as bulldogs often do. So it looks to me like England bullying Northern Ireland.
The cat looks a like like Tom from the Tom & Jerry cartoons, and the dog resembles the dog (whose name I can’t recall at the moment) who appeared in some of them.
I suspect that the designs of Tom’s scarf and sweater are significant. Normally I would guess representing a football (soccer) team, but that seems incongruent with an Ulster uniform. Apparently we Yanks know about Tom and Jerry (and Spike), but not the rest of the story. I’m sure our fellow Dopers from the area can enlighten us.
From what I can tell from Google, it’s a (presumable Glasgow) Celtic related scarf, although it doesn’t match their colours now. It seems to be an UDA-related mural, so I guess the image is intended to be literal.
On edit, it looks like the websites are mirrored or something, the plate # is the same.
Still not sure I understand. What’s a “loyalist band?” And why would it have a rivalry with the Glasgow Celtic team? Is this political, or sports, or a mix of the two?
Yeah I found that more direct link after my edit expired. Glasgow Celtic is a FC supported mostly by Catholics. Glasgow Rangers are mostly supported by Protestants. Their games can get pretty nasty. Although Belfast has perfectly good teams, the Scottish teams have the bitter rivalry and sectarian basis, and their fans can be stereotyped religiously.
Loyalist means a Protestant paramilitary/terrorist/freedom fighter group (take your pick) such as the Ulster Defence Association which I mentioned above, as suggested by another link.
I’m curious then as to whose side that mural is on? Is it on the side of the big badass bulldog? Or the put-upon underdog cat? Is Glasgow Rangers seen as a big, bullying, Yankees-type team, vilified by the mural? Or conversely is it supposed to be celebrating how powerful the Rangers are and implying that the Celtics are pussies?
I don’t think the dog is supposed to represent the Rangers at all. At first glance it looks like an ironic mural; England or loyalists oppressing the Catholic. But it looks like the dog is putting Tom “in his place.”
I think the Rangers are the winningest team of all time (still?). Yes, imagine them as the Yankees of soccer, except their fans are even bigger asshats.
loyalist band = Protestant group (think of a high school marching band, except it’s 60yo guys in bowler hats)
I don’t think it is any particular group, but it’s fairly close to the Royal Blacks. The hat is probably an allusion to the Black and Tans. The dog is also wearing an Ulster Banner which identifies him as a Unionist / Protestant.
Celtic are firmly identified as being a Catholic team.
You’re getting your countries and politics mixed up. The bulldog represents ‘Britain’, not England, and it shows the British bulldog showing the Catholic Irish (Celtic supporting) cat who’s top dog, not Northern ireland (which is 50.50 Protestant/British Loyalist and Catholic/Irish Republican). It’s local politics, not England against Northern Ireland.
As an English person, I’d like to add ‘not in my name, thank you very much’.
Nothing to do with Rangers here. And I wouldn’t give the mural painter too much credit for irony - it’s just a literal representation of Loyalists showing Republicans who’s the boss.
They’re the most successful Scottish team, and have won more trophies than anybody else (in the world—this doesn’t imply that they’re the best team in the world, though!), but realistically, there’s only two teams with any chance of winning anything in Scotland, these days: Rangers and Celtic (the Old Firm).
Both clubs are trying to stamp out sectarianism, too (with a lot of prodding from European and the domestic football authorities, it has to be said).
The dismal antagonisms of Northern Ireland have transferred themselves, in a somewhat milder form, to Lowland Scotland thanks to continual population movement between the two over many years. This is typified in the antagonism between Rangers (Unionist and Protestant) and Celtic [pronounced seltic and not keltic] (Irish Nationalist and Catholic) and in a somewhat milder form, between Hearts Of Midlothian and Hibernians in Edinburgh.
The marching bands, many from the Loyal Orange Order, are a part of Unionist [Protestant] triumphalism celebrating their longstanding hegemony over the minority Nationalist [Catholic] population until recent times. They feature elaborate uniforms and brass and wind instruments and insist on parading the streets along ‘traditional’ routes, even where population movement has rendered once Unionist areas now strongly Catholic and hostile. The tunes they play are also traditional and in many cases calculated to be provocative to the Nationalist population. The best known one is The Sash My Father Wore. Many of the most triumphalist bands actually come over from Scotland for the purpose; such bands are known as ‘kick the Pope’ bands.
The mural depicts Spike wearing one of the band uniforms with Unionist emblems on it.
The ‘Marching Season’ is a fixture on Northern Ireland’s calender, and one where many people choose to leave town for the week and get away for a few days rather sit through it waiting for outbreaks of rioting.
Apparently it is meant as an ad for the band and is meant to be humourous.
Finally, a number of humorous, cartoon-style murals appear from time to time, often advertising a local marching band (see plates 39,40 and 46). Bulldogs seem to be popular (an allusion to the British connection), but cats, mice and rabbits feature also. While the depiction of the cartoon dog Spike in a loyalist band member’s uniform threatening Tom who is wearing a scarf of a Celtic football club supporter is original and witty (see plate 43), these humourous murals are sometimes politically obscure. What, for example, could a passing observer make of loyalism if the only statement they were able to see was that of a rabbit in a uniform advertising Gertrude Star Flute Band? (see plate 46)
Two quick points,the Republicans were at least as and probably more enthusiastic mural painters then the loyalists and many Irish republicans apart from being Celtic supporters are fanatical supporters of an English premier league football club called Manchester United,maybe because it was captained by an Irishman but I dont really know why.
There are lots of humorous murals, depicting these bands with cartoon characters. There’s ones with Bart Simpson, ones with that character from Iron Maiden, Eddie I think his name is.
This resource lists a number of the murals along with some pictures. I own one or two books of photos of murals created by CAIN.
Argent Towers, if you’re ever visiting Belfast, political mural tours are very popular. I did one and found it very interesting.
