The movie adaptation of Fifty Shades Darker opened just before Valentine’s Day, with Holywood native Jamie Dornan starring as Christian Grey, the billionaire entrepreneur into BDSM – hence the rope heart in the VisualWaste mural shown above.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04035 north st
“The Belfast Scottish Association was founded in 1888 and headed by prominent businessmen, including Sir George Clark of Workman Clark and Andrew Gibson (pictured) whose Robert Burns collection is now housed in the Linenhall Library.”
This is the final entry in a series from discoverulsterscots.com about York Street businesses and Ulster Scots businessmen: Shipbuilding | London, Midland and Scottish | Workman Clark’s | Belfast Goods
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03985 X03988
In the background, an RNU suicide awareness stencil (with tricoloured sunbursts) – “RNU support the promotion of suicide awareness in the Colin area”; in the foreground, a Sinn Féin poster – “Respect for all – marriage equality now!” At the pedestrian entrance to Old Colin.
(And to the left, a broken End Torture board can be seen.)
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04016 pantridge rd
This is an old poster (dating to November 2012) still visible in Castle Street, calling for a march and vigil in remembrance of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist living in Galway, who died from a septic miscarriage after being denied an abortion.
As a result of her death, the Protection Of Life During Pregnancy Act was signed into law in 2013, more than 20 years after the X Case, clarifying the issue of abortion in Ireland in the case of a threat to the mother’s life.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03510
There are 11 faces in the railings of the Royal Victoria Hospital, created by Bruce Williams and Avril Wilson in 2000, one for each decade in age from infancy to 100 years old. The letters “X” and “Y” run along the top of the helically-twisting railings between the portraits, representative of DNA. Included here are the portraits for 20, 80, and 50.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03962 X03964 X03963
Work by screen-printer Leo Boyd (Fb | Tumblr) in Belfast city centre. A tank gets a spray-can top for a turret.
Are you a robot? | Big Men Wail Hammers | When Urban Love Goes Wrong | Oh You Pretty Thing
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03930
Among the Belfast goods “exported around the world from York Street by rail and sea” were Gallaher’s Blues (cigarettes), Irish linens, Davidson & Co (Samuel Davidson, born in County Down to an Ulster-Scots family, was the inventor of the Sirocco centrifugal fan “for mine ventilation, dust removal, induced draft, forge fires”), and linen carpet thread from York Street (Threads) Ltd. Robinson & Cleaver’s department store is now out of business. Gallaher’s is now the multinational Gallaher Group, but its factories in Belfast and Ballymena have closed. And Davidson’s company was bought by Howden UK in 1988.
Previously in the series: Shipbuilding | London, Midland and Scottish | Workman Clark’s
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03984
New political party Saoradh (Fb) is advocating a boycott of the upcoming (March 2nd) Stormont election, claiming that Stormont espouses “the co-dependent ideologies of imperialism, sectarianism and capitalism”. The tarp shown above lists various problems and scandals (“Nepostism, fraud, corruption, phantom community groups, NAMA, sectarianism, jobs for the boys, Red Sky, RHI scandal”) and evokes the spirit of 1981 hunger striker Bobby Sands: “Everyone Republican or otherwise has their Part to Play.” Also visible are a board celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising (see versions in Andersonstown | Ardoyne | St James), an éırígí mural featuring Patrick Pearse, and a call for the release of the Craigavon Two (previously featured).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04032 tír gan teanga tír gan anam athshealbhaıgí an phoblacht
“Paint this shitty city pretty.” A graffitist (from TMN?) on the Cupar Way “peace” line, calling for the removal of his/her own work? Or perhaps just that of the thousands of tourists who add their names and messages to the wall? “Peace and love”, “All you need is love”, “Fuck Dublin”, “A wall can’t stop hate; maybe peace can”, “Fuck the IRA”, “Fuck Trump 2016”.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04015
A modern sprayer remembers ‘the legends’ of yesteryear: a footballer celebrates (perhaps from the former Willowfield FC which won the Irish Cup in 1928 or the current Willowfield Parish) and a H&W workers tucks into a sandwich.
The mural to the right of the image can be seen in My Anchor Holds.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04006 willowfield pde
Extramural Activity 