“A friend is a hand that is always holding yours no matter how close or far apart you be; A friend is someone who is always there and will always always care. A friend is a feeling of forever in the heart.” A new community mural in Ballymurphy shows locals seated in a circle of hands. Among the surrounding quotes (visible in the second image, below) are two lines from Robert Burns’ Auld Lang Syne (“And there’s a hand my trusty friend [fiere] And gies [gie’s] a hand to [o’] thine”, and, “We’ll take a cup of kindness yet For auld lang sang [syne]”)

The other lines are from …

I’ll Tell Me Ma (“Out she comes as white as snow, rings on her fingers a bells on her toes”, and, “My Aunt Jane she called me in, she gave me tea out of her wee tin”)

I Know My Love (“I know my love by her way of walking”)

The Gypsy Rover (“The gypsy rover came over the hill, down through the valley so shady”)

The Fields Of Athenry (“Low lie the fields of Athenry, where once we watched the small free birds fly”)

The Cobbler (“Oh, my wife she is humpy, she’s lumpy, my wife she’s the devil, she’s black, and no matter what I may [do] with her, her [tongue it goes clickety-clack]”)

and a skipping song (“On the hillside stands a lady, who she is I do not know”)

A wide shot (third below) shows the other two murals on this stretch of Ballymurphy Road: Between and Bryson-Mulvenna.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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