“Welcome To The Shankill Road. We are Proud, Defiant, Welcoming” with images of Belfast in the blitz, the Orange Order and bonfires on July 12th, boxing and soccer, and contemporary murals in the local area. The mural is above the security gates on Northumberland Street.
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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Free Derry Corner, flying a tricolour, is at the centre of some wild-style writing, with BRY [Bogside Republican Youth] graffiti. On the Bogside shops.
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“Eastway Wall Art Project – a Re-Imaging Communities Programme – aims to help all communities in urban areas tackle the visible signs of sectarianism and racism and to create a positive welcoming environment for everyone. Living gallery envisaged by Creggan Enterprises and created by Guildhall Press & Tom Agnew. Signage and artwork fabricated locally by Globaltech. [acknowledgements] The Eastway Wall itself has undergone major refurbishment including the construction of two new pillars to frame the wall. The lower Eastway natural-stone tower maintains the historical link between Rath Mór and the Grianán of Aileach ring fort in Donegal. The higher Eastway structure comprises two sections of a factory chimney stack once located on the nearby Bligh’s Lane site and demolished in 2008. This was added to preserve an important link with the area’s industrial heritage.”
The image above shows the second through the eighth panel. A few of the info boards, including the main one, are shown below. (For the Creggan Story and its info board, see M05174.)
Above the panels shown, some panels just have single words in them – for five of these see Vibrant.
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Another George Best reference in another mural at the Dark Horse/Duke of York. George Best quit Manchester United (temporarily) for Spain towards the end of the 1972 season (and quit United for good in 1974). The precise phrase — “Sod this, I’m off to Marbella” — and picture of Best playing keepsy-upsies in the sun come from a John Roberts book about Best. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 (WP). The Klondyke Bar was in (PUL) Sandy Row and bombed by the IRA in January, 1976.
This is just the left-most part of a large mural in the Dark Horse courtyard. (For the whole thing, see The Bar Is Called Heaven.) It is almost entirely black-and-white – the Guinness labels and betting slip from Eastwoods are exceptions. If you recognize any of the figures, please leave a comment. The photographer in the top right is Bill Kirk | some pictures at the RBG.
There is a signature of sorts in the top left: “Two cold, hungry muralists for hire. Phone Danny D[evenny] and Marty L[yons].”
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X00961 burns laird line glasgow, tom carnduff songs of an out-of-work, nunu talent contest, guinness, eastwoods, belfast telegraph he urges a time of healing ford will take office today moves into whitehouse
Local readers will hopefully be able to help identify the people (and the horse, and the crab on a fishing line) staying in the Europa Hotel, as depicted in a new (late 2012) board/construction at the Dark Horse/Duke Of York. Artist Ciaran Gallagher has a collection of pictures of the piece being constructed and installed.
According to WP, the Europa was bombed 28 times during the Troubles (which would explain the damage and the abseiling paramilitary on the left?), and Bill and Hillary Clinton’s entourage took up 110 of the 240 rooms when they stayed at the Europa hotel in 1995. In the foreground, George Best balances a ball bearing the words, “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.” Is there some particular reason why the “E” is the euro sign?
Previously from the Dark Horse/Duke Of York: Big Brother Is Watching. Below is a wide shot of the whole.
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This is the board in The Fountain, Londonderry visible in the distance in True Blue. The panels feature local spots from days-gone-by.
A piece of the old Gaol still stands, between Bishop Street and The Fountain.
Wapping Lane still exists. One can view census records for Clarence Place and Wapping Lane from 1901 at the National Archives.
It would seem that the mural being painted in the top panel was in Clarence Place? (Inferred from this first-person account of life in The Fountain from the Londonderry Sentinel. (Add a comment if you can confirm/refute this.)
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X00940 past the gaol and down behind the fountain wapping lane clarence place
“Life, Truth, Victory.” A new (within the last 12 months) board just outside the walls of Londonderry, in the Fountain area. (The Fountain area is a small Unionist area on the west bank of the Foyle river; the larger unionist population is in the Waterside on the east side of the river.)
The city’s coat of arms is featured in the centre – there are various interpretations of its elements, including the skeleton (WP). St. Columb’s cathedral (WP) is top left and a map of the wall bottom right. In the top right is the coat of arms of the city of London (whose flag is the top part of the coat of arms) – “Lord, Direct Us.”
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X00939 [X05219] domine dirige nos, ano do 1633 cap regis 9, if stones could speake then londons prayse should sounde, who built this church and cittie from the grounde vaughan – see If Stones Could Speak.
In 2008 and 2009 artist Raymond Henshaw completed a series of cultural murals about the Markets area of Belfast. This one showcases the people of the Markets. The others are: Portraits | Social History | Sport & Culture | Bars | Industry
Two of the images – bottom right and two spots above it – show a street party to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of Robert Emmet in 1953. For a mural from that occasion (in Ardoyne) see Visual History 02.
Lower Stanfield St, Markets, south Belfast
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Walk over the Albert Bridge onto the Short Strand and just before you turn into Mountpottinger Road on your left there is a little park known as ‘An Glas – The Green’; these jigsaw pieces can be seen there, hanging on the wire fencing facing out onto the main road. See the wide shot and text below for more about the project. Launched 2008-11 (BBC-NI).
Frankie Quinn of the Red Barn Gallery has a a photograph of the two little boys in the bottom left of the board as adults. Also in the background (proceeding anti-clockwise) one can see MickeyMarley’sRoundabout and the old Scirocco Works factory, as well as the Harland & Wolff cranes Samson and Goliath, Belfast CityHall, and the wire sculpture next to the Waterfront.
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X00907 X00908 final piece to the jig-saw; this artwork came about by the working in partnership with a number of community groups schools and agencies namely the lower castlereagh community group short strand community forum beechfield primary school st. matthews primary conflect resolution consortium the core project northern ireland housing executive and the relations council; had the idea of an interface art project involving that are situation along the interface; also approached the artists for the project who are two east belfast artists; worked with the young people involved to come up with the idea as to what the artwork should look like with the end result being a picture taken of all the smiling and laughing together and then their eyes and moths taken out of the picuture and portrayed on the big pieces on the interface wall
Union Flag and territorial graffiti, Westland Road, north Belfast.
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Extramural Activity 