Poet Seamus Heaney died on this day 2013 and the gravestone erected in St Mary’s, Ballaghy, on the same day the following year. The epitaph is “Walk on air against your better judgement” from the poem ‘The Gravel Walks” in The Spirit Level.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03931 1939-2013
Olympic boxing champion (and former Ireland soccer player) Katie Taylor is currently 6-0 in her professional career. Her image is being used here as an inspiration (or warning?) to the children of Victoria nursery in the New Lodge. She was also featured in a mural outside Coláiste Feirste in west Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04428 X04429 X04430 X04427 image at boxrec
New Lodge soccer club St Patrick’s (Fb) have a new mural on the New Lodge Road, painted earlier this month by Ed Reynolds (steadyhanded.com | tw).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04425
“We salute those who gave their lives for Irish freedom”, including James Connolly and Padraig Pearse in the 1916 Easter Rising, planned by Pearse (and others in the military committee of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The IRA would be formed in 1919. The mural in the wide shot was featured in Mothers & Sisters.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04266 X04267
Martin Luther King is used to support the end of “complicity” in the practice of internment: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” The quote comes from King’s Steeler lecture entitled “The Trumpet of Conscience” (which was also used as the title of a 1968 collection of lectures). The Marwan Barghouti board (in Belfast) was featured previously. Both boards are from the IRPWA (Fb | web).
William St, Derry
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04337
The inspiration for the new installation outside Coláıste Feırste entitled “Athbheochan” (“renewal”) is the area’s previous life as the site of spinning mills, established in the 1800s to take advantage of local rivers (Forbaırt Feırste). The Bog Meadows nature reserve down beside the M1 is the only part of the Blackstaff’s flood plain that remains in an undeveloped state.
The launch was on August 11th during Féıle by Maırtín Ó Muılleoır, but the piece is also part of Irish-language festival Lıú Lúnasa (tw | web) which is going on this week. Artist Aodán Monaghan can be seen on the left in the final image of kids climbing all over the artwork.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04407 X04405 X04408
UVF volunteer John Hanna was 19 years old when he was killed by “the enemies of Ulster” (the IRA) at his home on Donegall Road in the Village. This new board is in Prince Andrew Park, just off Donegall Road. “Always remembered by the officers and volunteers South Belfast [2nd Batt Sandy Row] UVF”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04312 greater love no man hath ycv
The picture tells a thousand words and a few more are added around the top: “Individual, unique, cherished, treasured, miraculous, fearfully & wonderfully made. Survivor!” This is Mark Ervine’s piece for #HitTheEast. In the in-progress shot below, Mark stands aside to let a local try her hand.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04411 X04369
The new Bernadette mural on Lecky Road, Derry, is considerably lighter than its predecessor (which can be seen at Peter Moloney Collection). The setting is still the Battle Of The Bogside, after which Devlin was served six months for inciting a riot, but Bernadette, with megaphone, is in red while the woman with the bin lid is wearing blue jeans. The bulldog and the child in yellow carrying the bin lid like the shield of a Celtic warrior are new additions. The wall in the background was previously Free Derry Corner.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04290 X04291
Éıstıgí, or “listen, yous-uns” in Derry/Doıre, is the youth organisation associated with Soaradh (web); it promotes a socialist (and republican) ideology.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04285
Extramural Activity 