Children play among and with the landmarks of the world – riding the Sydney opera house, building the pyramids out of sand, climbing the Eiffel Tower, building the Taj Mahal from blocks, blowing on a windmill, and swinging from Samson and Goliath.
This is an old (2016) piece by Friz (web), still in excellent shape on the wall of Currie Primary school, off the Limestone Road in north Belfast.
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As an apéritif for Hit The North 2025 many local artists painted on the “Belfast Stories” hoarding along North Street in mid-April. Here is a selection, from Wee Nuls (web), All The Doodz (ig), KVLR (web), Kilian (ig), and Graffic Belfast (ig). For all fifteen pieces, see the Paddy Duffy Collection.
For the previous art on these hoardings, see ‘Bout Ye?
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Here is a small selection of pieces from this year’s Hit The North (2025). (For complete coverage, see the map of Hit The North festivals.)
Politics of any sort rarely intrudes (see the 2019 Lyra McKee piece, which is still present in Kent St) but there were two pieces about the current devastation of Gaza were included, one by JMK with the caption “I Stand With Kneecap” and another by Conor McClure with the title “Know Their Names”.
Above and immediately below: “Make Art For Money” and “Picashso” by Luck (ig). Descriptions of the pieces in each photo are interposed below.
A sleepy person by Karl Fenz (web)
An eye containing a reflection of the Sunflower bar by My Dog Sighs (web), and a seated painter by Sanchai (ig).
“Stand By Your Trans” by Mel Carroll (web), “Wonder Day” by Jacky Sheridan (web), and a smiling face by SillyMe (ig) , in front of BUST’s “Dry Gin” from 2022 and a fox by Annatomix from 2023.
“Stand By Your Trans” by Mel Carroll
“Eat the rich” by FGB (web) + Katriona (web).
HTN 2023 piece by KVLR (ig) in the waste-ground.
“I stand with Kneecap” by JMK
All of the above were painted in Kent Street.
In Union Street … a “Wee Bonnie” dog by Kayde (web) and “Tell People You Miss Them/I Miss You” by Alana McDowell (ig).
“Your Ego Ain’t Your Amigo” by Codo (ig), a cycling artist by Leo Boyd (web), “Know Their Names” by Conor McClure (ig) and “Con Safos” by KAYOS (ig).
The names of dead Palestinian children by Conor McClure (ig)
On the other side of Union Street, Sky High (ig), with Malarky’s “Everlasting” in the background.
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Derry native Nell McCafferty was commemorated by a new mural in the Maiden City, launched on International Women’s Day (March 8th), 2025, and the annual Femme Sesh event was also dedicated to McCafferty (ig | Derry Journal).
McCafferty died last year (2024) after a long career as a journalist and activist (BBC). “Goodnight, sisters” was her parting phrase at the end of her segments on The Women’s Programme, which aired on RTÉ between 1983 and 1986 (Journal).
Here is RTÉ footage of Nell and Marian Finucane on the Late Late in 1991 and in 1980.
The mural was painted by Peaball (web) on a gable in Lisfannon Park and is visible from Lecky Road. The portrait of McCafferty appeared on the cover of (the Penguin Ireland edition of) her autobiography Nell.
For the mural on the low wall (in the wide shot, below), see Two Nations One Struggle.
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These three cars are by DanK (ig) in Bank Square, Belfast city centre, on the wall of Crown Jesus Ministries (Fb) (in the Berry Street Presbyterian building), replacing the ‘Creation’ mural painted in 2012. Dan calls the piece “Hope” (ig) after the church’s ‘Hope Mission Centre’ (ig); this is the same title he gave to the geisha on the Shankill. This piece does not feature any of the kanji street-signage that would place it in Japan (compare with Night Taxi in the Woodvale), though there is some on the pink car, left.
The middle car has the license plate “OUTATIME” which was the plate on the DeLorean in ‘Back To The Future’ (see also: You Built A Time Machine … Out Of A DeLorean?)
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“Deadly” here means “excellent” or “terrific”, perhaps from the idea of “hitting the (living!) target” (Stack) – it is a piece of southern slang that artist and print-maker Leo Boyd (web) perhaps picked up on his journey from Bristol to Dublin to Belfast (Boyd | Atom) where he is one of the Vault Studios artists (Vault).
The new work shown here is at the American Bar (web) in Sailortown.
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A kraken awakes in Belfast harbour, under the watchful eyes of working-class men on the waterfront in Belfast’s Sailortown, in front of local landmarks.
Street art by KVLR in Corporation Street.
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Saoırse don Phalaıstín [Freedom for Palestine]. On August 9th, 2024, Irish-language rappers Kneecap launched a third mural in Hawthorn Street/Sráıd Na Sceıthe, (joining Incendiary Device and England Get Out Of Ireland,) which blows up a sticker seen on a nearby street-sign (seen previously in Land Grab) into a mural and which imitates the version from England Get Out Of Ireland which shows Britain grabbing a piece of Ireland.
For images from the launch, see the Paddy Duffy collection.
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The Guinness toucans – invented in the 1930s by John Gilroy (Collectors’ Weekly | Guinness Project) – balance pints of “Guinness 0.0” on their beaks as they fly over Clonard Monastery and the houses and shops along the Springfield Road, including (in white) Dan’s Bar (Fb), which is the site of this large poster (on its Cupar Street side).
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The info plaque next to this new piece of street art in north Belfast reads: “The Dark Dreamer – The Silkie mural by Loretta Lizzio is a recreation of the oil painting “Dark Dreamer” by world-famous Irish artist Patrick Jones who lived here in the family home.”
Patrick J. Jones (web) grew up in Belfast before leaving for London, England, in 1984 and Brisbane, Australia, in 1997. Lizzio, (web), who is also from Australia, reproduced Jones’s original (Fb) on the side of the Stax coffee-shop on the Cliftonville Road, renaming it ‘The Silkie’, though it depicts a mermaid rather than one of the seal-folk; compare with KMG’s interpretation of the Selkie myth in the city centre.
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Extramural Activity 