The Manor Street “peace” line dividing north Belfast’s Lower Oldpark and Cliftonville areas got a facelift in January — the beige was painted over with a sky blue colour. The wide shot, (third image, below,) gives an impression of its height and extent (and this is only the north-south part of the line.) The fourth image is of an old European Union “Urban” mural showing the north Belfast skyline, including Cave Hill (and Napoleon’s Nose) and Belfast Lough. (For more info on Urban II and the mural, see minute 17 onward in this NVTv documentary).
“I’d rather trust a dealer on a badly lit street corner than an MLA in a three piece suit” — a hoarding over a street containing a Saracen, a DeLorean, and a heavily fortified British Army base: The original slogan (from a Maser piece of street art in Dublin) seems to have been “… than a criminal in a three piece suit” — the substitution with “MLA” suggesting criminality in the Assembly: there’s an Isle Of Man Bank check for seven million two hundred thousand pounds, made out to “ANMLA”, drawn on the account of “Northern and Southern Ireland tax payers” in the bottom left-hand corner.
And in three bubbles in the centre: “Do you think our 18 MPs came up the Bann in a bubble? Do you think out 108 MLAs came up the Lagan in a bubble? Do you think our 3 MEPs came up the Foyle in a bubble?” — meaning that none of these people were born yesterday — along with a fishbowl of bowler-hatted fish swimming around a Stormont flying the jolly roger/skull and cross-bones with a sign saying “Westminster 370 km”.
In the right-hand corner, Marguerite’s “traditional sweet shop” is “Closed For Ever!” The shop used to be on Waring Street at the junction with Hill Street (according to Frankie Quinn of the Red Barn Gallery).
Four faces watch from the window. Do you recognize any of them?
The Irish News last week reported the concerns of west Belfast parents whose children sometimes play under-10 football at Inverary Community Centre, in front of the UVF mural shown above, with the flags of Scotland and the United Kingdom in the background. East Belfast FC, which is based at Inverary, responded that the complaints are “contrived” and that all children are welcome at the ground.
This is a new panel in the RNU (Fb)/Cogús (Fb) mural on Northumberland Street. If you can identify the image or the style, please get in touch. “End forced isolation, end controlled movement, end forced strip searches”.
Graffiti artist Jason Williams (REVOK) is paid homage by Psychonautes in Corporation Street. In 2018, H&M would sue Williams for use of a Brooklyn, NY piece by him (WaPo) before capitulating to a public outcry on-line.
Below is a wide shot of the street art in Corporation Street prior to being covered by Glenn Molloy’s gallery of famous faces. From left to right:
Bacchus by JMK [writing] [skull] Crow by Faigy [pig] Jason Williams by Psychonautes [and before that, a floating head] Three Missed Calls by DMC [writing, three panels, one by Filth?] [waitress] [bowling ball face] Amanda Jayne
Ronnie Adams was born in Belfast in 1916. He began driving at age 11 and rallying at age 18. He is shown above in a Jaguar Mk. VII, en route to winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1956, which was also around the time that he took over the family textile business from his deceased father — Adams remained an amateur driver his whole life.
This new mural of local landmarks — including centrally St. John The Baptist Anglican church — by Fra Maher was erected last November (2015) as part of a re-imaging and re-development project sponsored by the Housing Executive, and joins the art on the Woodbourne police station in brightening up the area — see Only God Can Judge Me.
There are large-size photographs of former residents posted on the closed-up doors and windows of Stratheden Street in the New Lodge, as the JCBs move in to begin demolition.
Extramural Activity 