Titanic Town – North Belfast

The mural features “North Belfast dockers, millworkers, shipyard workers [from] Titanic town 1912”.

Along the bottom are the names of various Belfast pubs and other businesses: The Waterloo, The Terminus, The Sportsmans Arms, The White Hart, The Bowling Green, The City Arms, The Orpheus – York Street, Railway Bar – Canning Street [image from 1970], The Edinburgh Castle [the boat of the Union-Castle line, launched 1910, built at H&W?], York Street Mill, The Gibralter [sic] Bar [whose then-owner was killed in 1972], Ye Old Castle [a bar (and restaurant?) bombed in 1971], The White Lion. Please leave a comment if you can add any information about these place-names.

A close-up of the info plaque at the top right can be found below. The piece was painted by Jim Russell from Glasgow.

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)’s collection of photographs of Belfast, 1912-1914 (some actually from 1911 and 1915) contains various shots of the area.

There are always cars parked in front of the mural, which is at the blind end of St. Vincent Street, next to Crusaders’ football ground. But finally we have captured it entire, automobile-free, in an extra-large (3854 pixels wide) image.

Previously: Titanic Town – South Belfast

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00686 X01139 X00687 gibraltar north belfast dockers millworkers shipyard workers titanic town 1912, this mural was developed under belfast city council’s titanic community engagement project, with support from the titanic foundation. thanks go to jim crothers and the hubb community resources center

Just As Good As Others

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RNU (Republican Network For Unity) mural at the top of Berwick Road (Paráıd An Ardghleanna) featuring the words of Maıréad Farrell, one of the PIRA members shot on Gibraltar.

“Everyone tells me I’m a feminist. All I know is that I’m just as good as others … and that especially means men. I am definitely a socialist and I am definitely a republican. I believe in a united socialist country, definitely socialist. Capitalism can offer our people nothing and yet that’s the main interest of the British in Ireland.”

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You’ll Never Walk Alone

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Above is a new (2013-06) mural on Ballymurphy Road painted by a local artist with the assistance of local youths, who suggested the song and insisted on the praying hands (at the extreme right, and in the image below). The mural features a smartphone (and a set of Beats headphones) showing the number for the 24/7 suicide help-line. The song, You’ll Never Walk Alone, is from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel, but is know to people in GB and Ireland as the anthem of Liverpool football fans, who adopted it from the 1963 version by Gerry & The Pacemakers.

You’ll Never Walk Alone
When you walk thru’ a storm, hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm lies a golden sky and the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart!

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X01138 X01137 don’t let your friends be alone put these numbers in your phone helpline life line 24/7 08088088000 it’s all good

McMahon’s

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There is a new commercial piece on the exterior of McMahon’s bar in Sailortown. The image above is one of three panels (wide shot of the whole below), showing the nearby St. Joseph’s church (along with the tin man from the Wizard Of Oz and the Guinness toucan by John Gilmour).

The third image below is of St. Joseph’s, now flanked by the Granary building (the Clow building) and the Merchant building. the sculpture of the rescuing angel in the foreground is by Maurice Harron, the artist who did the ‘Outreach’ sculpture in London-/Derry/Doire, featured previously in a mural on the Abercorn bar.

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End Internment

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“End British internment of Irish citizens.” Republican stencil on Springhill Drive at the junction with Ballymurphy Road.

Previous images with the same slogan: Stencil in Queens Parade (New Lodge) | Martin Corey board on the Springfield barracks.

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Protest Movement

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Writer’s Square in central Belfast is still being ‘Occupy’ed. This image was taken during the week of the G8 summit. The quote attributed to Albert Einstein reads, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

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From The Mountaintop

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Here are two more shots of the hillside of Black mountain above the Springfield Road during the G8 summit June 17-18. For more on the ‘Massacre’ mural, see Springhill-Westrock Massacre.

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The Usual Suspects

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To coincide with the G8 meeting taking place in Fermanagh this week “G8/NWO – War Criminals” appeared on the side of Black Mountain above New Barnsley.

Previously on the mountain: Thatcher – The Real Criminal

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X01148 X01151 X01149 X05281 collusion, state murder, brian nelson, media cover-up, british intelligence, loyalist death squads, government ministers, british army, ruc psni, special branch sliabh dubh

Smithfield Market

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The two murals featured here, depicting Smithfield in the ‘good old days’ — before it was fire-bombed in 1974 (gallery of 10 images at the Tele) – are inside the modern Smithfield, rebuilt in 1986, depicted in the third and fourth images. Update 2013-11: The two ‘Memories of Smithfield’ paintings are by Angela Ginn and Lorraine Burrell, 1999; funded by Belfast City Council.

The external shot is taken from the rear of Castlecourt. The foreign multinationals in it appear to be flourishing, while many units are vacant inside Smithfield.

For background: A 40-page booklet on the history of Smithfield | BBC footage from 1959. Click here for a video about bookseller John Clancy.

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Hands Up

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These pictures of children with a hand in the air can be found above the office of Cumann Pobaıl Mhachaıre Botháın, the Marrowbone Community Association office on the Oldpark Road/Bóthar Na Seanphaırce.

Below is a short (15 min) documentary about the area.

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