The pigeon gets a crown in imitation of the new UK monarch, Charles III.
Graffiti by Hallion in east Belfast. Previously in this spot: Wear A Mask Or The Easter Bunny Gets It | Thran Rights Nai | Where’s Our 600 Quid?
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Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Caitlin McLaughlin died suddenly on June 24th. She collapsed from a heart attack as she walked to the bus station in Belfast to return home from a music festival at which she had taken ecstasy (BBC). A requiem mass was held in Galliagh on the 28th (BelTel) and the mural shown here was launched in Brookdale Park on October 27th, which would have been Caitlin’s 17 birthday (Belfast Live).
“I saw you all, my family & friends/the day God took me home,/I smiled, I cried, I felt so proud/You didn’t let me go alone//To all my friends, please listen now/To what I have to say,/Please don’t leave your loved ones/the way I did that day//I’m with the angels in heaven now/and with our we[e] Kyle too,/But often I look down and sigh/For I’d rather be there with you//Forget me not/XO”
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Copyright © 2023 Andy McDonagh/Eclipso Pictures (ig | Fb)
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Graffiti on the shutter of Man About Town (barbers) in Upper Queen Street, Belfast.
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Flax flowers on the side of by Dutch street artists Studio Giftig (ig) in James’ Street South. Various linen and handkerchief manufacturers have occupied the building during its history.
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The replacement board – the word “believe” among flowers – is innocuous, but the replacing itself is remarkable, for a number of reasons.
The “Final Salute” board/mural at the top of the Rock (that ‘Believe’ replaces) depicted an iconic scene from the hunger strike period, of the funeral volley being fired over the Sands’s coffin on May 7th (reproducing the photograph seen previously in IRA Final Salute). More than 100,000 people came out onto the streets of west Belfast for the procession and images of the event were beamed to scores of countries by news crews from all corners of the globe which had flocked to west Belfast.
Further, the board has been in place since 2011, put in place for the 30 anniversary of the strike and Sands’s death on May 5th, and it was painted by Lucas Quigley, an IRA volunteer and brother of Jimmy Quigley (see M08864), who died on September 25th, last year (youtube). Being 12 years old, the board was not in good condition. It has been removed and is going to the Ulster Museum for its ‘Troubles And Beyond’ collection.
Finally, as far as its replacement goes, we would not have expected a non-sectarian replacement. This wall has had a CNR mural on it since Beıdh An Bua Agaınn in 1989. Even the USDT piece from 1996 onward featured an Irish dancer and an Irish inscription: “mol an óıge agus tıocfaıdh sí”. In general, we are not aware of any murals or boards depicting the 1981 hunger strike that have been re-imaged.
In this case, the new piece came from the children of John Paul II primary school, using the same style of ‘flower bed’ as at the entrance to the Felons’ Club. The work was funded by a grant from the Housing Executive to the Falls Community Council (Belfast Media) with support from the Resource Centre and USDT.
The task of repainting the wall, including the (painted) green head and orange foot for the previous board — and thus of removing Bobby Sands’s name from the wall — has been delegated to the owner of the building (News Letter). It is possible that something sectarian could be added to the lower space after that.
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Titanic Studios in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast provided one of the primary filming locations for the hit HBO series Game Of Thrones. The series ended in 2019 but its influence lives on in a series of free-standing stained-glass “windows” on “Maritime Mile” (web), the tourist attractions around the Titanic museum.
Shown in today’s post are (from top to bottom) the Stark, Iron Throne, Targaryen, and White Walkers windows.
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Here is a gallery of images from the now locked-up and boarded-up (and over-grown) Vault building, formerly the Belfast Met, awaiting demolition and redevelopment as housing. The images below move from left to right beginning with a piece that has not been featured before (outlines of human figures, with hearts on their chests); for the others, see Vault Guard Cat | Show Some Love | Build Communities | Vaulty Towers | In Bloom | Bizarre Bazaar .
See also: The Vault Is Empty | Do You Own A Giant Building?
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The Seal Folk or Selkies are shape-shifting creatures in island mythologies from Man to Ireland to the Scottish isles to the Faroes to Iceland. Seals in water, they can take off their skins and become (beautiful) humans on land. Without their skins, they cannot return, and so they can be captured by humans who hide their skins. A few tales can be found at Scotland’s Stories.
By KMG (ig) in Dublin Road.
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Copyright © 2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Gladstone Bar — seen on the right of the image above – was in Gilford Street at the junction with Divis Street, which stretches towards the city on the left. The other street image is perhaps also Divis St/Falls Rd though there are no easily-identifiable landmarks. In between them is a scene from the 1930 Laurel and Hardy film, Night Owls (WP).
To the left of these three is a mural of an island paradise, and to its left (in the final image) we find Muhammad Ali, based on the famous photo of Ali standing over Sonny Liston in their second encounter.
The murals are in a courtyard off Ross Road and were probably painted at the request of a local resident. The Ali-Liston fight – in 1965 – perhaps gives a date for the consciousness that groups all of these items together – the Gladstone was still standing in the 60s and Laurel and Hardy played on UK televisions into the 1970s. The source for the palm trees is unknown.
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Four colours of rubbish and recycling, and three colours of The Clash.
University Road/Stranmillis Road, south Belfast.
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Extramural Activity 