Belfast

DUP Backs United Ireland

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“DUP backs united Ireland in coming border poll, Mon, 5th May”. This image updates one of the images from two weeks ago of the re-painted mural at Madden’s bar in the city centre – see Sásta A Bheıth Anseo. Initially the newspaper showed a headline relating to the prosecution of DUP (now-former) leader Jeffrey Donaldson on charges of rape and sexual assault.

The DUP in January flirted (strategically) with the idea of supporting a border poll (BBC) but their more typical stance is that the conditions for a poll are not close to being met (News Letter).

While elections sometimes fall on the 5th as the first Thursday in May – most recently the 2022 Assembly elections (CAIN) – the date here is probably a nod to the anniversary of Bobby Sands’s death (in 1981).

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Meet The New Boss

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This UVF poster urges residents of east Belfast who owe money to loan sharks not to sell drugs or find some other way to pay it back, but instead to get in touch with a political representative.

The Sunday World reported that repayments are being withheld after the Shankill UVF ordered the leadership in East Belfast UVF to stand down (in November 2023 – IRN | BBC) and took over the operation. The posters thus come from the old (East Belfast) guard, trying to thwart the new bosses and hoping to resume collection themselves.

SDLP councillor Séamus De Faoıte commented (in the Irish News), “Anyone who has knowledge of criminal activity or exploitation of vulnerable people should report it to the relevant authorities, but people do not need to take any lessons from the UVF when it comes to upholding the law.” (Also: BelTel)

Meanwhile, the endingtheharm.com campaign (part of the Executive/DOJ’s programme designed to tackle “paramilitary activity and organised crime”) continues. See They Control You for a 2019 version. For the mural on the right of the final image, see Herbie McCallum.

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City Hall Stained Glass

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Here is a gallery of seven pieces of stained glass in Belfast City Hall. BCC has a guide to all of the stained-glass windows in the Hall.

1 (above): North Irish Horse, and in particular, the WWII battles it participated in (listed at the bottom of the window).

2 (below): Spanish Civil War

3 Cú Chulaınn – seen previously in Ulster’s Defence Force. See also the Visual History page In The Shadow Of Cú Chulaınn.

4: The Dockers’ Strike – seen previously in One Big Union.

5: The Famine Window. See also the Visual History page on The Great Hunger.

6: The Pathways Window – according to the guide, this window commemorates the pain caused to the relatives of deceased persons from whom organs were taken without consent.

7: The Centenary Window

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Double Vision

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This piece is on the same office-building as the ‘Be Your Best’ piece featured previously (in Auld Cobblers) at the city-side entrance to east Belfast, at the junction of Middlepath Street and Newtownards Road. Both are by Dee Craig/Belfast Mural Arts (Fb) as part of East Belfast Enterprise’s (web | ig) ‘Connecting Communities Through Art’ initiative. The two works were officially launched together on April 20th (pics on EBE’s Instagram). The two in-progress shots (last below) are from April 16th.

According to this Community NI article, the work has been installed using “a jigsaw-like technique using super strength glue to give it a lifespan of up to 25 years before requiring maintenance”.

Interpretations of the new piece are encouraged; feel free to comment or e-mail.

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Not A Dumping Ground

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These Shankill placards read “Landlords take notice: “You have a responsibility” This is not a dumping ground.” and “Landlords take notice: We are taking back our community.” Their wording is not as explicit as the tarps and posters that have been seen in other areas which read, “NIHE & Private Landlords take note: [Belvoir | Suffolk | Finaghy | Newtownards] will no longer accept the re-housing of illegal immigrants or the excrement of other communities!” (BBC Belvoir | BBC Suffolk | (BelTel Newtownards) and “We have had enough of undesirables and immigrants being placed into our community. The time has come for locals only.” (BBC Finaghy). The “excrement” language has been condemned by politicians from both sides, as it (probably) refers to homeless people and those suffering intimidation who apply for Housing Executive housing (here is the points system). See also: similar placards in Rathcoole (Belfast Live).

See previously: “Locals Only” graffiti on Shore Road.

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Spinning Memories

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The inspiration for this new piece of street art by KMG (ig) was the Strand Spinning Mill (formerly the Jaffe Spinning Mill) which closed in 1983 and is now the Portview Trade Centre. During WWI the mill made munitions and during WWII viscose rayon. The film Lint And Linen (youtube) covers both pre-industrial and mechanical linen-production (though mostly focused on yarn from line fibres rather than from tow, which was the Strand mill’s claim to fame (Duffy Rafferty)); the painting appears to present a more primitive and imaginary age in which fibres could be spun using the human hand.

For photographs of the old mill on the Trade Centre, see previously the image of A Block in Strand Spinning Mill.

“Spinning memories” is the name of a planned collection of stories for an archive at Portview (Portview Stories).

Townsley Street, east Belfast, next to the Narnia sculptures and facing Aslan Is On The Move.

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The Hardships Our Children Must Endure Tomorrow

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Sandy Row says “no” to an Irish Sea border, but “yes” to Israel’s invasion of Gaza. The verbiage along the bottom of the tarp reads, “The battles we refuse to fight today become the hardships our children must endure tomorrow.”

The tarp is on the Rangers “55” hoarding on Sandy Row, and was seen previously in Let Us Shout Joyfully.

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El Alma De Madrid

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“No foreigners” and “Locals only” graffiti in front of the new construction at the site of the Tudor Lodge on Shore Road at the bottom of Gray’s Lane.

Previously UDA graffiti at the site: Sinn Fein Toadies (from 2005) | Standing Stone (from 2021)

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Meditating Boxer

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This is one of Solus’s (ig | web) boxers in graceful poses, painted for HTN24 on Millfield at the bottom of Brown Street.

For close-ups, see the post at Paddy Duffy’s site.

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Childhood Dreams

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This painted box by Karl Fenz (web) is on Middlepath Street past the M3 and within sight of the Teenage Dreams.

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