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.
Here is the second of two boards outside the Ulster Rangers Supporters Club (see also Doing Her Duty). The painting features a tram going under an Orange arch between the public baths on one side an Spin-A-Disc records on the other, surrounded by notable figures from the Shankill area.
Many thanks to Johnny Dougan of Shankill Area Social History (Fb) for the information below! Please e-mail or add a comment with additions or corrections.
Front, from left to right: Manchester United and Northern Ireland Soccer player Norman Whiteside (WP) and behind him boxer Davy Larmour and community worker Saidie Patterson (see WRDA), boxer Sammy (Cisco) Cosgrove, Senator Charlie McCullough (WP), Tommy Henderson, boxer Jimmy Warnock (original photograph here), Hugh Smyth (see previously Third Class Citizens), artist William Conor (see previously Conor’s Corner, Jack Henning (running), musician Belter Bell, writer Albert Haslett (Northern Visions interview).
Atop the tram: on the left is Jackie Redpath of the Save the Shankill Campaign (note other members of the group with placard on right; Northern Visions has a documentary about the Save The Shankill campaign) and Jack Higgins holding his book The Eagle Has Landed (WP). Up there too is Miss Sands, the music teacher in the Girls Model School, and historian Bobby Foster (Northern Visions interview). On the stairs are May Blood MBE and above her D.I. Nixon.
Saturday (November 28th) saw the official launch of the repainted Lord Street. All of the murals and side-walls (such as in the final image, below) have been painted over or painted out as part of a project sponsored by the Housing Executive and CharterNI. Also included in the work was a repainting of the Ledley Hall/Queen’s Jubilee mural at the junction with Kingswood Street. The new mural shows the hall past and present and features local figures Bob Yarr (OBE), Eddie Witherspoon, John Cross (BEM), John Currans, Sam Rainey, and Reggie Morrow.
For information about the hall itself, see the previous entry Ledley Hall. See also Workers & Warriors for the new Somme mural across the street.
Update 2016-04: (part of) the info board. NIHE article on the re-imaging of nine murals in Lord St.
“The way we were” written on the bog side of the walls of Derry provide a name for this mural behind Derry’s Bogside Inn. The old Rossville flats are in the top left hand corner. (Both Rossville flats and graffiti on the walls – “God made the Catholics, the armalite made us equal” – can be seen in this 1982 image (M00039) from Peter Moloney’s collection.)
Young people from the Lower Shankill pose in the style of a movie poster: “You must have dreams and goals if you are ever going to achieve anything in this world.” The info panel (shown below) incorrectly states that the board replaces a loyalist H-Block mural (of which there were two versions: yellow (M02473) | orange) and, before that, a UDU-UFF-UDA mural; these were on different walls and this board replaces only the Maze mural.
This is the second of five recently-launched boards in the lower Shankill. The first to be featured was I Am Not Resilient.
mark adair megan aiken nathan arbuthnor craig ballentine ryan baxter justin baxter darnel bell latisha brant CJ burke rabileigh crooks morgan dillon alanna flynn nathan hill brandon irvine curtis irvine marcus kane dylan kane megan mccaw simone mccormick jordan mckeag brittney mckeag kerri-lee mclaughlin jenni mclaughlin glenn mcquillan thomas mitchell jordan mullan morgan patterson lauren stewart chloe stewart becky turner craig wilson
Work by artist Hugh Clawson (whose web presence is extremely modest) inside Conway Mill showing life in the mill and the lower Falls/Clonard area from years gone by. Painted directly onto an interior wall.
The lower Shankill estate has been re-imaged (again). The history of re-imaging in the lower Shankill is told by the new piece at Boundary Way: the wall first sported a mural critiquing Sinn Féin’s role in the peace process (see this 2004 image) before being replaced around 2007 by a mural celebrating Andrew Jackson’s Ulster-Scots heritage (see X00285). The new work sends a mixed message: the word “resilient” is in large letters and is the title of the piece, but the quote reads “Stop calling me “resilient”. Because every time you say “Oh, they’re resilient,” that means you can do something else to me. I am not resilient.” The quote would seem to be by Tracie Washington (not: Tracie Jackson) of the Louisiana Justice Institute. The left-hand side wall, which read “UDA Est. 1971” was painted over. For a description of the launch, see this Housing Executive report. Five printed pieces (four of them new this year) have replaced various murals in the area.
The Peace Bridge is shown spanning the Foyle between (the former) Ebrington barracks and the Guildhall, with a film-strip of images, many depicting naval and military scenes, above and below. The detail below shows a gap in the walls of Derry, a poster encouraging people to “Join the Wrens [and free a man for the fleet]” (the Women’s Royal Naval Service; see the poster at IWM), soldiers playing ping-pong in their barracks, and the ship’s bell of the HMS Londonderry (which served as a training ship during the Falkland War (WP)).
The Kashmir Bar on the Springfield Road gets a face-lift with a mural of the old Kashmir Bar, including the boast that it was home to the best singers in the west. A look at the Kashmir Bar Facebook page reveals that pool seems to be the foremost activity. For a photo of the old (green-fronted) bar, see D00283. (There is also a small image on the Belfast Forum.) If you can identify any of the locals pictured, please comment or e-mail.
Extramural Activity 