building/structure – Page 6 – Extramural Activity

St Joseph’s

2017-11-172024-12-27Extramural Activity1 Comment

Restoration on the exterior St Joseph’s chapel in Sailortown – a Catholic church decommissioned in 2001 – is set to begin this month (BelTel). The building, originally constructed in 1880, is in such a state that it was declared a dangerous building earlier this year (Irish News). Here are three images from the front: a masonry rose above the door; a plaque to two young girls who were killed by a UDA car bomb in 1972; and a wide shot. BelfastLive has a gallery of the interior, which also needs restoration.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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St Mary’s Chapel Lane

2017-09-162024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

St Mary’s Chapel Lane is Belfast’s first post-penal law Catholic church, originally constructed in 1784 with funds from local Presbyterian and Anglican congregations (WP). The current building dates to 1868. It was made a “B1” listed building in 1979. The “doorcase” is described as follows in its entry: “Painted sandstone doorcase comprises a pair of round-headed door openings with vertically-sheeted timber doors and bowtel arches rising from squat green marble columns with elaborate stiff-leaf capitals surmounted by an oval niche housing a statue of St. Mary and flanking seraphims to the spandrels. The entire entrance is framed by a further bowtel arch with chevron moulding and outer hood moulding also rising from a pair of green marble columns.”

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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I Spy

2017-09-122024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

You can see (or imagine) all of east Belfast with the help of the guide-post in the middle of Lisvannon Community Garden: Stormont to the east, factories to the south-west, and Harland & Wolff to the north-west.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Tyre-Free Pyre

2017-07-112024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Tyres for the Conway Street/Cupar Way bonfire were removed from the site in June (Belfast Live | image at Alternatives) but some might have recently been put in the middle (Belfast Media). In any case, there are still plenty of pallets, not to mention Sinn Féin election posters featuring Alex Maskey, John Finucane, and Michelle O’Neill, as well as the flag of ISIS, and IRA and INLA lettering.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Bridge

2017-07-052024-12-26Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Yesterday we featured the work of the “Ambassadors For Peace” on the Shankill-side gate on Northumberland Street, and today is the turn of the Falls-side gate. Like the upper gate, this one features figures holding hands, though this time on a bridge over a river.

The mural replaces the CRF graffiti on the gate.

For comparison of the gates before and after the new paintings, the second image is of the interior of the Shankill gate.

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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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McAuley’s

2016-04-232024-12-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The shutters are down on the Mill Diner on the upper Crumlin Road. Proprietor Tommy McAuley was shot by the UVF in 1987 in retaliation for the Enniskillen bombing. His case was examined by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) who reported (in 2011) that the police did not question suspects identified by witnesses and the family lobbied the ombudsman to reopen the case (U.tv). In 2014 they did not have any success (North Belfast News) but the case was reopened in 2015 (BMG).

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Convenience Shop No 6

2016-04-172024-12-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

a.k.a. “Brompton Stores” a.k.a “Sıopa An Ghleanna Aırd”.

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Unbroken Presence

2016-03-142024-12-24Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

More “peace” line images today (after yesterday’s repainting of the Cliftonville “peace” line in Blue Sky Thinking): at the end of February work began taking down a section of the 8 foot high wall on the Ardoyne side of the Crumlin Road, separating Ardoyne from the Woodvale area, though the section close to Woodvale and the wall on the Woodvale side remain for now.

The houses on the north side of the road will now be able to see the road and the doors of Holy Cross church (shown above).

The vintage piece of Free Brendan Lillis graffiti shown in the final image survives, just out of picture to the left in the wide shot below.

Here is some BBC-NI footage of the wall being knocked down. Here are Irish Times, NewsLetter and Tele articles on the 2013 NI Executive policy objective of removing the lines by 2023. And here’s an interview with Heather Bellamy, author of Towards A City Without Walls.

03319 2016-03-07 Brendan Lillis Crumlin Graffiti+

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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X03302 X03305 X03306 X03319 this cross stands here to mark the unbroken presence of the passionists and the people at holy cross since 1869 and as a sign of hope

Blue Sky Thinking

2016-03-132024-12-24Extramural Activity1 Comment

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The Manor Street “peace” line dividing north Belfast’s Lower Oldpark and Cliftonville areas got a facelift in January — the beige was painted over with a sky blue colour. The wide shot, (third image, below,) gives an impression of its height and extent (and this is only the north-south part of the line.) The fourth image is of an old European Union “Urban” mural showing the north Belfast skyline, including Cave Hill (and Napoleon’s Nose) and Belfast Lough. (For more info on Urban II and the mural, see minute 17 onward in this NVTv documentary).