community

Hillock Of The Grey Calf

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The Tullygarley mural in Larne, originally painted by Caroline Jeffrey, has been replaced with a computer-generated version reproducing most of the images. The bleaching green is gone; the Black Arch has been added, as has part of the mural that was on this site three generations of murals ago: God Save The Queen.

From the info-board for the previous version, included below:

“Tullygarley” means “Hillock of the Grey Calf” – thus the grey calf grazing with the cows.

The 36th Ulster Division – In September 1914 the Ulster Division was formed from the Ulster Volunteer Force which raised thirteen battalions for the three Irish regiments in Ulster.

Bleaching Green – Linen laid out in fields to bleach. The Bleaching Factory interior depicts the Bleaching process. (The building is currently derelict.) Blue Flax Flowers are the national floral emblem of Northern Ireland.

Local Primary School, Inver and Larne, known locally as “the Bridge”, as it looked in the 1930’s with the Inver River running through it. The bridge that the school was named after no longer exists.

Linen Factory of Glyn [Glynn] Road (no longer exists, site of abandoned garage) with inset depicting workers with weaving machines (circa 1924).

The old Tullygarley playground (mural site) with the Fountain in the foreground, and rows of houses on either side (Glynn Road and South Circular Road).

Sun Laundry Van. Sun Laundry showing people working inside (now Rea’s Furnishings, Bank Road).

Larne Lough – it is an area of special interest, a special protection area and a Ramsar site in order to protect the wetland environment.

SS Clyde Valley – launched in July 1886. Was used in 1914 to transport arms from Hamburg to Larne.

Roseate Tern – Larne Lough is the only breeding colony in Northern Ireland for the Roseate Tern, one of the UK’s rarest birds.

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A Welcoming Hand

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2015-02-19 SliabhDubhWelcome+

Local residents and children who helped construct the ‘Welcome To Sliabh Dubh’ mosaic at the top of the estate got to include their handprints as part of the artwork, under the direction of Martin McClure (according to a City Council brochure). As the other images (below) show, the area is also host to another mosaic depicting local landmarks from the past such as the Glenalina Bleaching Co and a cottage on the hills of Black Mountain as well as the superhero murals (Wallbusters | Cartoon World | Red-Eye) and Disney murals (some of which have been featured in If The Shoe Fits | Look Behind You! | Magic Mountain).

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Treepot – Drugs Out

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Here are two shots of a long mural between Mountforde Road and Beechfield Street in east Belfast. It features a tree growing out of a book, a golden teapot, with teabag hanging out the side, and a street scene. “Drugs Out” has been helpfully graffitied at the far end.

There doesn’t seem to be any information at all about this mural on-line. So, if you have any leads, please e-mail or leave a comment.

On the same wall: Geordie Bell

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Spray-On Culture

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Spray painting is an approved type of youth activity in this Glenfield/Castlemara community mural on a low wall on Oakfield Drive. You can see the ‘coat of arms’ (from the wide shot, below) of the Glenfield Community Association more clearly via their Facebook page.

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The Bar Is Called Heaven

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2015-02-07 UpstairsWide+

Here is the full width of the “upstairs” of Ciaran Gallgher’s Belfast Exposed, and with it the full expanse of the Klondyke Bar mural above it (featured previously in Nixon Resigns, Best Quits). For close shots of the ‘upstairs’, see Fifty Shades Of Belfast | Teenage Dreams.

To get some sense of the scale of these works, you should (get yourself a large monitor and) …

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Gie’s A Hand O’ Thine

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2014-09-02 HandsCrop+

“A friend is a hand that is always holding yours no matter how close or far apart you be; A friend is someone who is always there and will always always care. A friend is a feeling of forever in the heart.” A new community mural in Ballymurphy shows locals seated in a circle of hands. Among the surrounding quotes (visible in the second image, below) are two lines from Robert Burns’ Auld Lang Syne (“And there’s a hand my trusty friend [fiere] And gies [gie’s] a hand to [o’] thine”, and, “We’ll take a cup of kindness yet For auld lang sang [syne]”)

The other lines are from …

I’ll Tell Me Ma (“Out she comes as white as snow, rings on her fingers a bells on her toes”, and, “My Aunt Jane she called me in, she gave me tea out of her wee tin”)

I Know My Love (“I know my love by her way of walking”)

The Gypsy Rover (“The gypsy rover came over the hill, down through the valley so shady”)

The Fields Of Athenry (“Low lie the fields of Athenry, where once we watched the small free birds fly”)

The Cobbler (“Oh, my wife she is humpy, she’s lumpy, my wife she’s the devil, she’s black, and no matter what I may [do] with her, her [tongue it goes clickety-clack]”)

and a skipping song (“On the hillside stands a lady, who she is I do not know”)

A wide shot (third below) shows the other two murals on this stretch of Ballymurphy Road: Between and Bryson-Mulvenna.

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Fly Like An Eagle

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The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus, white-headed sea-eagle (WP)) is typically found only in North America, but the one above can be found in Ballymurphy.

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Work Organises Life

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Here are two panels from the Donegall Road bridge at Roden Street both concerned with working life in the area in years gone by. The (uncredited) words at the bottom of the first board come from a Bill Clinton speech. At greater length, it goes “I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work. Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline to life. It gives meaning and self-esteem to people who are parents. It gives a role model to children …”

The second features two stanzas from a poem called here “The Weaver’s Prayer” but also known as “The Master Weaver”, “The Weaver”, and “Just A Weaver”, and commonly though not unanimously attributed to one Benjamin Malacia Franklin in the 1940s; it is here said to have been penned by a “female Ulster weaver in 1922”: “Not ’til the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly, shall God unroll the canvas, and explain the reasons why. The dark threads are as neatful, in the weaver’s skilful hand, as the thread of the gold and silver, in the pattern he has planned.”

See previously: The Thread Of History which features two reflections on life as a female weaver.

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Growing Up Too Fast

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A young girl wearing an adult’s pushes a pram in the first of a dozen panels from the new ‘Fáılte go dtí Ard Eoın’ mural in Ardyone Avenue. The image is perhaps based on the (unattributed) photo, shown below the images of the mural.

2-3: The woman on the right is a spinner – her job is to ensure that the fibres of threads being wound together to make a strong thread do not break. The occupation of the man on the right is unknown. Please comment or send an e-mail if you recognize his occupation.

5-6: Two panels featuring boxers, possibly Freddie Gilroy and Eamonn Magee — leave a comment or e-mail if you can identify either.

8: Holy Cross church on the Crumlin Road.

9: A British soldier patrols the streets while a girl walks home from school and a boy plays hurley. This is one of the panels in the long mural at the shops on Ardoyne Avenue.

10-11: Two go-karters appear to be brandishing bottles as they ride while, to their left, two (rather stylish?) youths appear to be banging bin-lids.

“Is fearr Gaeılge brıste ná Bearla [Béarla] clıste” means “Broken Irish is better than clever English”.

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Faces From The Past

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Here is a final set of images of the New Lodge community mural, painted by Ed Reynolds. Above is a detail from one of the panels. Below are a wide shot of the whole, a picture of Ed repairing the vandalism which can be see towards the left of the wide shot, and finally one of the crew covering the piece in an anti-graffiti varnish.

More images of the work in progress can be seen at Ed’s web site, steadyhanded.com.

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