Ballycastle harbour is home to the Rathlin Island ferry and a memorial plaque to Marconi for an 1898 transmission between the town and Rathlin, and Morton’s Fresh Fish and Fish ‘n’ Chips. The mural above includes Ballycastle fishermen Sean Morton Snr, Phillip Morton, Jack Coyles, Will Henry, and Jimmy Black.
The mural is by Oliver McParland (web).
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Full title: “For the love of skulls what have I done” by Matthew Knight (ig) in Kent Street, Belfast, for HTN2021.
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Two views of Glen Molloy’s (ig | Fb) homage to the 1994 film Leon: The Professional, painted for HTN21 in Union Street, Belfast.
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This is the third mural (see 2014 The Maze Ablaze and 2018 The Battle Of Long Kesh) on the International Wall on Divis Street about the ‘Battle Of Long Kesh’, when republican prisoners tried to burn down the cages in protest at living conditions in the camp. CR gas had recently been developed by the British MoD at a lab in Porton Down and is alleged to have been “used against Irish POWs”.
Brady & Faul wrote an 80-page report on the conditions at the camp following the event, entitled The Flames Of Long Kesh. “Telegram to International Red Cross: ‘ … Visited Long Kesh today with others … request immediate investigation into use of “CR gas” … sub-human conditions … SOS … come immed[i]ately’ – 20 Oct 1974, Brian Brady & Fr. Denis Faul”.
The photograph which the central part of the mural reproduces is HU 70205 from the Imperial War Museum’s collection.
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The original version of this mural by Dublin artist Wee Nuls (ig | web) was beside Transport House but it was painted over almost immediately (you can see it on Twitter). This new version, at Artcetera (formerly the Red Barn Gallery), is auto-redacted with historical commentary: “You can censor the art … but not the movement”, the movement being for “free period items” in public spaces beyond schools, spearheaded by Homeless Period Belfast. In November, 2020, Scotland became the first country in the world to offer free period products (BBC). In October of this year, Pat Catney (SDLP) in the NI Assembly introduced a ‘period poverty’ bill to expand the availability of menstrual products (BelTel); the ‘Call For Views’ period commenced on Wednesday and ends on December 18th – have your say via NIAssembly.
Wee Nuls also has another piece on this wall: Medusa. The ‘period’ mural is next to Leo Boyd’s ice-cream PSNI land-rover – which started life as Freshly Made For You! (see also Winding Up The Peelers).
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A tribute to the NHS on a vinyl sticker in the newspapered front window of The Bear & The Doll (formerly Titanic, formerly Frames) – which closed in March last year (2020) in the distinctive style of London artist Nathan Bowen (ig | web store) who has been working on closed-up buildings and construction hoardings during the pandemic.
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Glentaisie Drive – site of this mural by Friz (web) – is named for Glentaisie, the glen – one of the nine Glens Of Antrim, at the foot of which lies Ballycastle – and Glentaisie is named for Taise Taobhgheal (Taise the bright-cheeked), daughter of King Donn of Rathlin island, renowned for her beauty, and who lived in the glen with her husband Congal, who had to kill the Norwegian king Nabghdon to prevent her being carried off (Archaeology Ireland). Or so they say. She also inspired the name “Fair Head” for the local cliffs. Or so they say.
In later years (1565), Sorley Boy MacDonnell was taken prisoner by the O’Neill’s after a battle in Glentaisie (WP).
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A blur of a hurler (or camóg) by Dublin artist Aches (web) in Ballycastle, where the local GAA club is Mac Uilín/MacQuillan’s (web).
Previously by Aches in Belfast: Disruption | A Closer Look | Headaches
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