painted wall

The Belfast Blitz

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2013-09-19 Blitz+

Above is a new mural by JMK (Jonny McKerr – Fb) in Hogarth Street (in Tiger’s Bay) with images of the Belfast Blitz – in the apex a Nazi bomber sets buildings alight; in the main panel, people, including a milkman, walk among the bombed-out buildings.

900 people died and half the homes in Belfast were destroyed or damaged (WP).

In the bottom right corner, men listen to a woman testing a piano after it was moved – the original can be seen at Communities NI. The garden wall (to the right of the shot) has an outline on it but is not yet finished.

Update 2013-10-16: The garden wall to the right has been completed. It features a painted frame surrounding a manufactured plaque. See below for an image.

2013-09-19 BlitzDetail+

2013-10-16 BlitzPlaque+

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01318 X01319 X01395 this mural is dedicated to the people who lost their lives in tiger’s bay on the 16th april 1941 during the belfast blitz anderson brown campbell carson christy clarke donnnelly dornan duffy erskine fee flack gordon halliday hillis howard irwin jerwood kennedy kinghan lilley lynas lyttle mcatamney mcavoy mccary mccullough mcdowell mchugh mcintyre mcilwayne mckinty mcknight mclellan mcneil millar miller moore mulhulland pollock renton rossborough spratt taggart toogood venn venton warwick wilson

The Big Plan

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2013-09-21 Gaeltacht+

The new Gaeltacht mural on Divis Steet’s International Wall is to mark the launch of The Big Gaeltacht Quarter Plan and the signing of the Gaeltacht Quarter Charter (Tele).

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01324 an domhan an chathaır ceılıúır próıfíl athléımneach saınıúıl údarach spórt oıdreacht draíocht turascóıreacht oıdeachas teanga cultúr the world the city celebrate profile resilient distinctive authentic sport heritage magic tourism education language culture

Broken Bad

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2013-09-26 VisualWasteBrBad+

Hit TV series Breaking Bad ended last night after five seasons on-air. The popularity of the show is such that artist Visual Waste chose to make lead character Walter White the subject of his contribution to Culture Night Belfast. The new piece is right next to Visual Waste’s piece (which we called ‘The Mark Of Zorro’) from last year’s festival, in North Street.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Direct Action

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2013-09-23 InverwoodComplete+

After a delay, the UVF mural in Inverwood Court, replacing a George Best mural, has been finished. (The Belfast Telegraph reports it was finished on 2013-09-21, and that negotiations to remove it are “ongoing”.) The quote on the right – Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed – comes from the section of Martin Luther King’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail in which he considers the merits of civil disobedience or direct action. For a shot of the half-finished piece, see Second Best.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01330 for god and ulster

Fox & Bird

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2013-09-26 FoxBird+

A new piece by Friz (previously: The Girl With The Flaxen Hair and Working On A Building) and Danleo (whose web site has a few photos of the piece in process; CNB has a photo of the sketched piece) in North Street, completed as part of Culture Night Belfast 2013, shows a bird fighting off a fox who wants her eggs, all in a mane of human hair. The building to the right was also featured on ExtrAct at this time last year: An Essay On The Necessity Of Art. Official title: Fight Or Flight

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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End

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2013-09-17 End+

Detail from a new mural on the Springfield Road, opposite the barracks: End British internment of Irish Republicans, 2013. Painted by Rebel Rebel of the Gael Force Art group. A shot of the whole piece can be found below.

2013-09-17 EndInternment+

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A Better Future

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2013-08-18 PastFuture+

In this new east Belfast mural, we move from a part of “violence – terrorism – conflict – imprisonment’ to a future of ‘culture – empowerment – human rights – multiculturalism’. The mural is black-and-white on one side and colour on the other. On the left we have watchtowers and paramilitaries in hats and sunglasses; on the right schoolchildren in front of city hall, working on a computer and playing football.

The mural was defaced immediately after it was finished (roughly the end of July), indicating dissatisfaction with the current direction of ‘the future’, but quickly repaired. There is a mural directly above this one, on Lendrick Street, which was featured previously. A wide shot of them both can be found below.

2013-08-18 LendrickStWide+

Update: Spring 2022 – some of the words on the colourful ‘future’ side of the mural have been painted over: “empowerment”, “equality”, “diversity”, “multiculturalism”. There is also a streak of white paint on the arm of a black person in the centre of the mural. See the final two images.

X14079 2023-08-14 No Diversity d+

X14078 2023-08-14 No Diversity+

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Copyright © 2013/2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01278 X01277 X14079 X14078 looking to a better future, learning from others in conflict in northern ireland ulsters darkest day’s days trouble again bombs explode  the troubles a chronology of the northern ireland conflict january-february 1973 stormont earth globe john stewart BCC press release

Second Best

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2013-09-09 Inverwood+

As reported in the media a week ago (BBC | Guardian | U.tv video | Slugger), an east Belfast mural featuring footballer George Best, which itself replaced a UVF mural, has been painted over and is being replaced by a new UVF mural. Progress on the piece, however, seems to have halted. This image shows the progress as of Monday 9th, showing no change since the 4th. The mural quotes Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail (pdf), drawing a parallel between the Civil Rights movement in the US and the situation of contemporary Protestants. Below is an image of the George Best piece, courtesy of the Geograph project.

Update 2013-09-13 U.tv reports that the work on the mural has indeed been halted.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Australian Aid

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2013-08-20 ConwayStBanners+

Above is an extra-wide shot (2700 pixels) of another panel from the wall next to the Republican Museum on Conway Street (next to the previously featured Eileen Hickey). The mural features banners of two Australian Republican support-groups, holding banners reading “Australian Aid for Ireland QLD [Queensland] Branch – The Spirit of Freedom” and “The Casement Support Group – Saoirse Melbourne”.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01281 lark, fuiseog, old branch hunger strike amnesty

Flower Of The Linfields

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2013-08-13 LinfieldFlower+

The Linfield area of south Belfast is named for the flax plant, genus Linum (presumably – there doesn’t seem to be a history of the area on-line), though that plant is blue (see this image), while this one – in Linfield Gardens – is orange.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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