There are 11 faces in the railings of the Royal Victoria Hospital, created by Bruce Williams and Avril Wilson in 2000, one for each decade in age from infancy to 100 years old. The letters “X” and “Y” run along the top of the helically-twisting railings between the portraits, representative of DNA. Included here are the portraits for 20, 80, and 50.
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Copyright © 2016 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Work by screen-printer Leo Boyd (Fb | Tumblr) in Belfast city centre. A tank gets a spray-can top for a turret.
Are you a robot? | Big Men Wail Hammers | When Urban Love Goes Wrong | Oh You Pretty Thing
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Among the Belfast goods “exported around the world from York Street by rail and sea” were Gallaher’s Blues (cigarettes), Irish linens, Davidson & Co (Samuel Davidson, born in County Down to an Ulster-Scots family, was the inventor of the Sirocco centrifugal fan “for mine ventilation, dust removal, induced draft, forge fires”), and linen carpet thread from York Street (Threads) Ltd. Robinson & Cleaver’s department store is now out of business. Gallaher’s is now the multinational Gallaher Group, but its factories in Belfast and Ballymena have closed. And Davidson’s company was bought by Howden UK in 1988.
Previously in the series: Shipbuilding | London, Midland and Scottish | Workman Clark’s
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New political party Saoradh (Fb) is advocating a boycott of the upcoming (March 2nd) Stormont election, claiming that Stormont espouses “the co-dependent ideologies of imperialism, sectarianism and capitalism”. The tarp shown above lists various problems and scandals (“Nepostism, fraud, corruption, phantom community groups, NAMA, sectarianism, jobs for the boys, Red Sky, RHI scandal”) and evokes the spirit of 1981 hunger striker Bobby Sands: “Everyone Republican or otherwise has their Part to Play.” Also visible are a board celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising (see versions in Andersonstown | Ardoyne | St James), an éırígí mural featuring Patrick Pearse, and a call for the release of the Craigavon Two (previously featured).
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“Paint this shitty city pretty.” A graffitist (from TMN?) on the Cupar Way “peace” line, calling for the removal of his/her own work? Or perhaps just that of the thousands of tourists who add their names and messages to the wall? “Peace and love”, “All you need is love”, “Fuck Dublin”, “A wall can’t stop hate; maybe peace can”, “Fuck the IRA”, “Fuck Trump 2016”.
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A modern sprayer remembers ‘the legends’ of yesteryear: a footballer celebrates (perhaps from the former Willowfield FC which won the Irish Cup in 1928 or the current Willowfield Parish) and a H&W workers tucks into a sandwich.
The mural to the right of the image can be seen in My Anchor Holds.
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“This police force is after your hearts and minds. The true face of this force: harrasses [sic] and stalks Republicans and their families; works hand in glove withe MI5, NCA and British Army; uses informers to spy and up ‘Persons of Interest’; gives immunity to criminals in return for information. From RUC to PSNI – unchanged, unchanging, unchangeable.” IRSP poster in Oakman Street.
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Winston Churchill’s line about the British Air Force in WWII, that “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few“, is echoed in this WWI board about the battles at the Somme between July 1st and November 18th, 1916. “The few” in this case, however, number nearly half a million dead and more than 72,000 missing. “Never before was a debt owed to so few by so many. Generation after generation owe them everything. Lest we forget.”
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Pop singer George Michael died on Christmas Day, 2016 (WP) and Prince on April 21st. Both were in their 50s. They are remembered in this south Belfast mural by Glen Molloy.
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People Before Profit are fielding two candidates (Michael Collins, Gerry Carroll) in west Belfast for the Assembly elections. The hoarding above (on the Andersonstown Road) points to “the failure of established political parties” (“theıp ar na páırtıthe polaıtıúla bunaíochta”) and asks voters to “seize the opportunity” for change.
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Extramural Activity 