Street art in North Street – oranges on a wire looking none too steady or healthy. The one on the right has gone a bit pear-shaped and appears to holding an ice-pack to its face. Or is it a mobile phone for oranges? Artist unknown (send e-mail or leave a comment). Next to a tag by Inkie.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Above, “End forced strip search, controlled movement” RNU/Cogús (web) stencil (“End forced strip search, controlled movement”) in front of a gallery of RNU/Cogús boards (see Until All Are Free We Are All Imprisoned).
Below, stencil of the iconic Che over his father’s words: “[In my son’s veins flowed the] Blood of an Irish rebel”. (See previously: Che Guevara Lynch)
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“Titanic Sinks” is the headline of the newspaper in this recent mural in east Belfast. In fact, news was hard to come by in the first few days after the sinking in the early morning of April 15th, 1912, as Titanic sank a thousand miles from New York and wireless was the only means of communication. The Evening Sun’s headline on April 15th (which might be partially reproduced here) announced “All Titanic Passengers Are Safe; Transferred in Lifeboats at Sea” (image at Pratt Library). Here is a NYTimes article about the difficulty in getting reliable news in the days after the sinking. This is new work by John Stewart. (Report on the launch at NIHE.)
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X02395 titanic sinks queen of the ocean Edward Harland 1831-1895, Gustav Wolff 1834-1913 built in belfast story sinks inglis white star line
Stencil art from Patrick Devlin showing a suffering Jesus of Nazareth. See previously: Blowing My Mind | Mr. Lee
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X02518 Red Barn Gallery crown of thorns crucifixion
Here is another set of tags (after the selection from the Cupar Way “peace” line in Sign Here), this time from the city centre, specifically Unity Walk and Garfield Street.
(For NOTA (none of the above) see previously: CNB12 | The Sun Will Make You Blind | Belfast Butcher | Street Life | Keep ‘Er Lit)
Compare 2014-10 with …
… 2015-02.
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Here is a gallery of seven pieces of street writing from the Cupar Way “peace” line, starting above with Eoin (see previously: Kiss And Make Up) and ending with NOYS. The wall, and the works on it, are covered in the signatures of tourists who come to see the wall and the murals of west Belfast, though these images (taken between June and October of 2014) are mostly of fairly fresh work.
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X02004 X02010 X02007 X02006 X02296 X02093 X02096 puerto rican judo it says doc arnz bopie gabe sam matt eq roach manone razer vyal tl bd coi amc tda klann tnb tds tiws sums noys am moon
The three-storey mural above is in Ballysillan and replaced a UVF mural when it was added in 2011. The mural is the work of Jim Russell, shown below at Arts For All where he is artist-in-residence. The information below was provided by Arts For All.
The Great War: The first panel commemorates the Great War that ravaged Europe from 1914 to 1918 and shows troops advancing into battle, the Ulster Tower at Thiepval commemorating the sacrifice at the Somme and an image showing one of the war cemeteries and highlighting the true cost of war.
Second World War: The second panel features some of the devastation visited upon Belfast during a series of Luftwaffe raids during the early years of the Second World War. Belfast suffered greatly with over 1,000 people dying in four nights of bombing in April and May of 1941.
The Troubles: In the third panel highlight the dark history known as the Troubles. It features two events from the years of that time – the murder of the three young off-duty Scottish soldiers in 1971 [the monument depicted was featured in The Highland] and the Bloody Friday bombings of July 1972. In the midst of the horror that accompanied the early years of the Troubles these events still caused many to struggle to understand how people could carry out such atrocities.
Present Day Conflict: Panel four brings us up to the present day. Military service is a tradition for many in Northern Ireland and for many their first overseas trip came on the back of an overseas posting whilst serving in one of the Armed Forces. From times past, through the World Wars, the Korean War, to more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers and regiments drawn from Norther Ireland continue to play a role.
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Here are the three right-most panels from Ciaran Gallagher’s (web) “Upstairs” in the Dark Horse/Duke Of York courtyard:
On the left, a young (and left-handed) Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol images himself as a future rock star as he plays the broom, beneath an Undertones sign, “Teenage dreams, so hard to beat”, reflected in the mirror. (Drummer Jonny Quinn worked at Good Vibrations as a youth.)
In the middle, a mature Rory McIlroy relives a moment from age nine, when he appeared on the Gerry Kelly show on UTv and chipped balls into a washing machine.
And finally, Carl “The Jackal” Frampton lets out a roar after beating Spaniard Kiko Martinez to become IBF world super-bantamweight champion in September 2014. He defends his title this Saturday (2015-02-28).
In the attic: Deep Throat, not the Watergate scandal but the porno, both 1972.
See previously: Fifty Shades Of Belfast, featuring The Fall (from television) and Romper Room (not from television).
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The plaque above was unveiled on the 40th anniversary of the death of Martha Campbell, on May 14th, 2012. Campbell was the last person to die in the protracted gunfire that followed the bombing of Kelly’s Bar in Ballymurphy on the 13th. UVF gunmen are attributed the killing by McKittrick (186), but no one has officially taken responsibility for the death (WP). A tribute site exists on-line, which maintains that the bullet came from Henry Taggart rather than Springmartin.
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South Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force 2nd Battalion “A” Company Donegall Pass, with the flag of England (St. George’s Cross) in one corner and in the other an orange star with “1912” written below, the year the Ulster Volunteers were founded. The colour-scheme is the reverse of the Orange Order’s: its flag has the purple star of the Williamites on an orange field.
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Extramural Activity 