Before rock band Thin Lizzy played the King’s Club at the Queen’s Court hotel in Bangor on July 27th, 1974 (Thin Lizzy Guide), they took to the water in order to take in the town. They were photographed in the act by Dublin photographer Liam Quigley (Indo profile), and the picture (see it at Thin Lizzy Guide) was turned into a mural by Friz (ig) in Crosby Street, Bangor, last year.
Original guitarist Eric Bell (who was also a member of Them) is featured in a mural of famous faces in east Belfast – see Inspiring Belfast.
Here is a gallery of images from the new, multi-panel, floral mural in the middle of the New Lodge.
The mural was painted by emic (ig) with young people from the New Lodge Youth Centre, sponsored by Communities In Transition (a programme of the Executive Office) and organised by Community Restorative Justice Ireland (web).
“A champion shows who he is by what he does when he’s tested. When he gets up and says “I can still do it”, he’s “a champion.” In Irish mythology, the Tuatha invade Ireland and battle the Fır Bolg. They are successful but their king Nuadha loses his arm and with it his kingship of the Tuatha. He had it replaced with an arm made of silver and regained his position. He is used here as an inspiration for those struggling with mental health, who are encouraged to call Lifeline or Aware.
(A history of Nuadha in murals is included in the Visual History page on Jim Fitzpatrick.)
The modern-day hero accompanying Nuadha is boxer James “The Assassin” Tennyson, current Irish super-featherweight champion. There are also four mental health boards (shown below) around the corner from Urban Villages Colin Safer Streets Initiative with messages such as “Think, Talk, Feel – Positive”, “Everything that you are is enough”, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow”,
“Our revenge will be the laughter of our children” – The words of Bobby Sands are illustrated on an electrical box on the Whiterock Road, Belfast, with silhouettes of children at play in nature.
A ceremony to mark the forty-second anniversary of the deaths of IRA volunteers George McBrearty and Charles “Pop” Maguire – shot by the SAS on May 28th, 1981 – was held last Sunday (May 28th) in the garden of remembrance in Linsfort Drive, Creggan (Derry Now). On patrol in Creggan with two other IRA men, McBrearty and Maguire pursued and a car whose driver they suspected of being an SAS soldier and eventually stopped it at the bottom of Couch Road/Southway at the edge of the Brandywell. The driver shot McBrearty as he approached the car and Maguire was shot by the driver and/or by other undercover soldiers from 14th Intelligence who emerged from two other cars. A third volunteer was injured. (Lost Lives 2330)
The “Crann Na Poblachta”/”Tree Of The Republic” – a silver birch – was originally planted in front of the previous mural to George McBrearty mural in Rathkeele Way (see Freedom Fighter For The Republic) (Derry Journal). Both that mural and this one were painted by ‘Bogside Artist‘ Kevin Hasson.
There is a plaque to McBrearty & Maguire near the spot where they were killed on Coach Road/Southway (see M01544).
Australian artist Fintan Magee (ig) in Ebrington Square, Londonderry, showing a young girl – a symbol of the next generation – (Bel Tel) behind obscure glass. To the right is a dove; the orca in the bottom right is Dopey Dick, who swam up the Foyle in 1977 (Fb).
The inspiration for this new street art by emic (ig | web) – perhaps in both pose and pallette – was Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Blackberry Picking’ (Derry Journal). A young person appears to be searching intently: “You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet/Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it/Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for/Picking.” (Full poem)
The official title is “Younger Days”; in Creggan, Derry, for Gasyard Féıle; with support from the Communities In Transition programme.
Replaces Creggan 75; there is still republican graffiti on the adjacent wall (final image): “Stop normalisation of RUC/PSNI”.
“Rotten And Corrupt: Christopher Little (39) entered guilty pleas to nine charges at Belfast Crown Court last month – including attempting to have sex with a child. [Irish Times] 20 officers shared racist, sexist and misogynistic messages including texts and images which mocked Arabic and Islamic people. [Spotlight programme] Six PSNI officers all had hearings for an array of alleged offences. PSNI revealed they themselves had dismissed 11 police officers amid claims of over 130 misconduct cases throughout the force. [Belfast Live]”
It’s not clear who is behind these flyers in north Belfast; the harpist on the electical box is by Kerrie Hanna (ig).
New Lodge Road, Belfast.
Update: the posters have been removed (by the end of July, 2023).
The Lagan river between Belfast and Lisburn was made navigable in 1763 after seven years of work. The remaining distance between there and Lough Neagh (and the coalfields of east Tyrone, which were connected to Lough Neagh and then Portadown and Newry) required a canal, which finally opened on January 1st, 1794. The were 27 locks on the route between Belfast and the lough, and horses walking on the tow-parth would pull the barges up river (WP | Lagan Valley | Lagan Navigation has photographs of horses at work). Horsey Hill was perhaps the site of stables in south Belfast; it is now the name of the alley that continues on towards the river from the Ukraine sunflower mural off Harrow Street in the Holylands.
Forward South Partnership/Connor McKernan’s video about the history of the Holylands, including Horsey Hill, can be seen on youtube.
Painted by Daniela Balmaverde (ig) and DMC. At the bottom of Horsey Hill, along the embankment, are Animals Two By Two.
This is the second mural in Derry to Sister Clare Crockett – the first was in her Brandywell home (see All Or Northing!) while this one is in Shantallow.
Crockett became a nun in 2001 and died in 2016 at the age of 33 in an earthquake in Ecuador – the mass for the seventh anniversary of her death was held last month (youtube).
(Update, Jan 2025: Crockett is to be beatified – Irish Times)
Painted by Razer (ig) in Racecourse Road, Shantallow, Derry.
The info board reads:
“Sr Clare Crockett was born in Derry 14th November 1982. The daughter of Gerard and Margaret Crockett. During a Holy Week Retreat in Spain in the year 2000 she experienced the intensity of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection that led to a deep conversion of her life. Sr Clare entered the Servant Sisters of the House of the Mother 11th August 2001. She went to found a new community in Jacksonville, Florida in October 2006. Sr Clare took Perpetual vows 8th September 2010. In 2014, Sr Clare undertook the mission in Ecuador. She died in an Earthquake, protecting her pupils 16th April 2016. She was buried in Derry 2nd May 2016.”
“Sister Clare’s Prayer: Heavenly Father, for your Glory, that or [of] your beloved Son, that of the Holy Spirit and that of the Mother Of God, we ask that grant us the grace (mention your request in the silence of your heart) … as a sign that the life of our Sister Clare Theresa Crockett has been pleasing to you on this earth and that she is now rejoicing with you in Heaven. We ask this through your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Extramural Activity 