Belfast

Everyone Wants To Eat

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The Bellevue steps lead from the Antrim Road to Floral Hall, which served as a concert and dance hall before closing in 1973 and since becoming dilapidated. There have been various plans and calls for redevelopment, even in the last five years (one | two | three) and there is a Facebook group dedicated to restoring Floral Hall, but nothing has happened. As the wide shot (below) shows, the famous steps too are overgrown; the facade at least has been painted with zoo animals, by London artist Irony (ig) (Belfast Media). The lion’s name is Quays (Zoo); the giraffe is called Ballyronan (BelTel); the flamingos’ names are unknown.

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Our Lady Of Perpetual Peace

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A statue of Our Lady Of The Sacred Heart stands in front of the “peace” line on the Divis side of Boundary Street.

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The Human Race

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“Be proud of your race – the human race.” Local school-children from the Divis area worked with artist Fra Maher to produce this anti-racism mural – including quotes from Nelson Mandela (“No one is born hating another person”) and Martin Luther King, Jr (“Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”) – that was unveiled on St Patrick’s Day at Divis Tower (Belfast Live has a gallery from the launch.)

With support from Belfast City Council and the Divis Youth Project – Frank Gillen Centre.

Replaces the One World mural – see Accomplishments Have No Colour.

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Still No Inquest, Still No Justice

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A march took place this past Saturday (July 9th, 2022) to mark the 50th anniversary of the Springhill-Westrock massacre, in which five people were killed by the British Army. A new inquest was directed by the AG in 2014 but has been repeatedly delayed; it is scheduled to begin next year (Belfast Live).

The march was organised by the Springhill-Westrock Campaign (Fb | tw); it began at the memorial plaque in Springhill and ended at the memorial garden in Westrock (Irish News). See also Keep On Praying.

The mural shows the pre-fab aluminium bungalows built in Westrock in 1949.

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Love, Loss, And Beyond

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Here is the HTN22 street art and writing along Union Street, Belfast, west of Kent Street, in sequence from east to west. The pieces are by Nial.OL (ig), JMK (ig), Kenz (ig) (whose piece is entitled ‘Love, Loss, And Beyond’), KMG (ig), Inkie (ig), Aches (ig), and Homer Simpson with Garfield legs by Bust (ig) whose large piece can also be seen, in the background of the third image (and was featured previously in Belfast Or Bust).

For other walls painted during this year’s HTN, see Vagabonds Of The Western World | Red Heads | The Children Of Gear | Evoke | A Burning World.

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A Burning World

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Here, in sequence, are the HTN22 pieces on Union Street to the east of Kent Street, with work by Razer (ig) (reproducing a Judah Passow photograph from Divis flats), NOYS (ig), Irony (ig), KVLR (ig), Lobster Robin (ig), Friz (ig), Shane Ha (ig), and Ink Fun (ig). ADW’s 2016 piece Keep Her Lit completes the wall.

For other walls painted during this year’s HTN, see Vagabonds Of The Western World | Red Heads | The Children Of Gear | Evoke | Love, Loss, And Beyond.

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Evoke

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In sequence, here is the east side of Kent Street, below Union Street. This wall begins with emic’s 3-D hands and then the new (HTN22) pieces begin: Claire Provoust (ig), Holly Pereira (ig), DMC, ADW (ig) (this piece was featured previously in Spring Into Art), Det + Mash, Omin + Oner + Kone, Vents (below Biggie Smalls in Only Love Can Save Us). The Codo piece from last year is still on the shutters at the end (see Before An Audience).

For other walls painted during this year’s HTN, see Vagabonds Of The Western World | Red Heads | The Children Of Gear | A Burning World | Love, Loss, And Beyond.

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Red Heads

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Here, in sequence, are the HTN22 pieces on the west side of Kent Street, above the gates into the construction site: unicorns from Zurdie (ig), Not Pop (ig), ‘Hope Never Dies’ from Glen Molloy (ig), sushi from Zippy (ig), FGB (ig), ‘The Belle Of Belfast City’ from Alana McDowell (ig), Leo Boyd (ig), Codo (ig).

The Lyra McKee tribute (If You Listen Very Closely, You Can Hear Her Breathe) completes this side of the wall.

For other walls painted during this year’s HTN, see Vagabonds Of The Western World | The Children Of Gear | A Burning World | Evoke | Love, Loss, And Beyond.

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Who Am I?

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Work by Irony (tw | ig | Fb | tumblr) in College Court, Belfast.

Later (March 2023) replaced during the Women’s Work jam – see Women’s Work for in-progress shots and We Built This for completed works.

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My Enemy’s Enemy

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The Ireland Supports The People Of Donetsk graffiti outside the RVH has been modified, perhaps twice. Most prominent is a the writing by MASH (of TMN krew) – highly unusual appearance by a tagger on a central thoroughfare (and in west Belfast, too).

It is possible is that the “Free Ukraine” in the bottom left was an earlier response to the original graffiti. It is not clear why “Free” has been x-ed out.

Support for either Ukraine or Russia in CNR areas is non-existent, perhaps because of anti-imperial attitude applied – in equal but opposite measure – to both NATO and Russia. At the beginning of the conflict, Sinn Féin deleted thousands of comments critical of the EU’s or NATO’s stance towards Russia from its web site (Indo | Irish Times | journal.ie | see also Irish Examiner).

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