This vintage grocer’s signage and “Rehoboth, The Well” shopfronts are in North Queen Street, north Belfast. “Rehoboth” was the name of the well dug by Isaac after several others which got him into disputes with other land-owners. When this one proved uncontroversial he rejoiced, saying “At last the Lord has made room for us and we will flourish in the land.” (Genesis 26:22) Demolition on the site began last week.
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Copyright © 2014 Extramural Activity
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This New Lodge mural shows people on the coast, near abandoned buildings, trying to grow crops during the period of the Great Hunger 1845-1852.
“An tOcras Mór” (a literal translation of “the great hunger/famine”) is usually (in Irish) “An Gorta Mór” or “An Drochshaol”.
The left-most and right-most figures are from Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field in the Illustrated London News. ILN images are a staple of Belfast muraling on the Great Hunger: see the Visual History page on the Great Hunger. (Here is a list, with links, of all of the illustrations of Ireland in ILN from the period 1845-1852.)
The two central figures, and the composition of the three women together, come from Millet’s The Gleaners. (Thanks to Jeryn Mayer for this pointer.)
There is a Visual History page on the Hunger in murals.
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Copyright © 2014/2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Community. Pride. Culture.” As part of a 2009-2010 re-imaging program, the UDA mural on Cultra Street in Tiger’s Bay was replaced with this “cut-out” tiger.
More information about the project, see tigers-bay.com.
For a picture of the former, UDA, mural, see the Peter Moloney Collection.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Carl ‘The Jackal’ Frampton fights tomorrow night (2014-04-04) against Hugo Cazarez for the opportunity to fight Leo Santa Cruz for the WBC super-bantamweight title. He is managed and promoted by Barry McGuigan. Here is a 2013 video profile of Frampton by The Guardian. As he mentions in the video, Frampton (who is Protestant) married a Catholic, while McGuigan (who is Catholic, from Clones) married a Protestant.
He is featured here in the apex of the ‘Midland Boxing Club’ board in Cultra Street in Tiger’s Bay, alongside his Irish featherweight title. The board is unusual in that it is tailored to the full size of the gable wall.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Éırígí (web) support for the PFLP (Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine – WP). For more on the “skyjacker” Leila Khaled, see the mural featuring her in Hugo Street.
Ludlow Square, Belfast.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Antrim Road at Carlisle Circus also bears the street-name ‘Winifred Carney Road’ (top left of the image above), as part of the ‘Naming Our Streets’ project. Carney’s name was chosen for this location – SIPTU offices – because she was a trade unionist and also because she grew up on Carlisle Circus. For more information, including biographies of 50 historically important Belfast women, seven of whom were honoured in this way, see the Women’s Resource & Development Agency.
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“Sinn Fein Out” – graffiti on the Ballysillan Road, directed at Catherine Seeley, a (Catholic) teacher at the (Protestant) Boys’ Model, and who recently became a Sinn Féin councillor in Craigavon. Seely has now quit her job. (Newsletter | Tele | BBC-NI). Previously: Our Wee Country (3)
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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The final large spot on (republican) Northumberland Street wall has been claimed, we know not by whom. A small, bookmark-shaped, span of wall also remains further down the road. See the Visual History page for Northumberland Street for details.
“Watch this space”, as they say. Or, as in the piece (below) on the Cliftonville Road (first seen last year), “new mural loading”.
The piece in the centre-left is one to O’Neill & Beattie.
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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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“KAT” (Kill all taigs, i.e. Catholics) in red, white and blue at the edge of the Glenbryn area at Alliance Crescent.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Above is a new plaque (unveiled August 11, 2013) in Etna Drive/Corán An Ardghleanna (in Ard Eoın) to Seamus Morris and Peter Nolan, who were shot by the Protestant Action Force (UVF) twenty-five years ago, in August 1988. It reads “Brutally murdered for their faith … by loyalist death squad aided by British crown forces. Never forgotten by family and friends.”
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01413 in proud and loving memory aged 18 25 years
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