Yesterday’s symbolic vote on Catalonian independence (for more background see Votes About Votes) showed 81% in favour of separation from Spain. Here are three shots of the encouragement on Slıabh Dubh (Black Mountain), the second with the Ballymurphy Easter Rising mural in the foreground, the third with the wall of superheroes in Slıabh Dubh estate (see Wallbusters | The Walls, Unbroken | Red-Eye | Cartoon World).
At the same time that the new David Ervine board was put in place, the existing board next to it, which dates to 2008, was spruced up. The image above is a wide shot of both boards, while the image below shows the commemorative casting in front. For the original board, see David Ervine; for explanations of the sculpture, including its pipe, prayer-book, ticket, and boots, see Memory Chair.
A sad Scotsman has been swallowed by a whale and is living in the belly of the beast along with an octopus, a little boy, and various other creatures. For CNB 2014 by Martina Scott, Drawn In Belfast, John McFarlane/Cosmic Bacon and others.
Bobby Sands’s poem The Rhythm Of Time, published in 1981 as part of Prison Poems, is printed in full along with images of Long Kesh and other prisons in which republican prisoners were held.
The work was launched 2014-08-10, to coincide with the anniversary of the introduction of interment in 1971 (see e.g. this BBC news report).
“He had the courage to climb out of the traditional trenches, meet the enemy in no man’s land and play ball with him.” David Ervine was a UVF member, arrested in 1974 and served six years in the Maze before turning to politics. He first ran for office in 1985 and represented East Belfast in the NI Assembly from 1998 until his death in 2007. The new board, above, shows Ervine’s silhouette in a wreath of poppies along with pictures of and information about his life; the image below of the lower left-hand side includes a photograph of Ervine with Gusty Spence.
Video of the launch (on 2014-11-01) is available at U.tv
Here is Faigy’s (Fb) finished piece, begun for CNB 2014, in William Street, just round the corner from Bellaire Hair & Beauty (Fb) in Royal Avenue (and opposite Hicks’s Lurid Wood from the previous year): one of Faigy’s wide-eyed beauties sports an extravagant pink hair-do. (Some of the jewels in the original version have been painted out.)
Here are two details from the Ardoyne, Bone, Ligoniel mural featured yesterday, as well as a shot of bouquets of flowers in front of the plaque on the stone put in place in 2003. The first reproduces a photograph of Maıréad Farrell during the “no-wash” or “dirty” protest in Armagh Women’s Prison. (See the middle of this 1989 Frontline documentary.) The second shows the walls and guard-towers of the H-Blocks (featured previously in You Know Where). The frames and photographs of 40 locals are printed, not painted.
26 volunteers and 14 others from the Ardoyne, Bone, and Ligoniel areas are commemorated in a new (2014-10-05) mural. The images below show artist Mickey Doherty, himself an ex-prisoner, at the start of the process – with the grid-work visible – and shooting an “action” shot for VICE TV.
The previous mural also commemorated local volunteers (34 painted portraits rather than a printed board), but this mural adds a Celtic cross, funeral volley, and images of Armagh women’s prison, the cages at Long Kesh, and the H-blocks, as well as (an inverted image of) blanketman Hugh Rooney – detailed images can be seen in Prison Walls.
The original ‘Flower Pot Men’ was a radio show in 1951 and then a television series in December 1952; it featured the adventures/mishaps of two flower pot men, ending – because they were identical – with the question ‘Which of those two flower pot men – was it Bill or was it Ben?” The few (10? IMDb) episodes produced were repeated until 1970. “Bill” and “Ben” were the names of the younger brothers of creator Hilda Brabban and ‘Little Weed’ was based on her younger sister, Phyllis (Toonhound | Daze Of Our Lives). The characters were revived in 2001 and given a new look; the garden ornaments above from in a yard in Monkstown are based on the modern pair, though painted in red, white, and blue.
A pro-Gaza “Viva Palestine” mural/stencil has replaced the Maıréad Farrell piece at the top of Berwick Road/Paráıd An Ardghleanna in Ardoyne/Ard Eoın. The flyer on the box touts high-speed broadband – you can go anywhere you want on-line, but, as can be seen from the wide shot below, the road itself runs straight into the Glenbryn “peace” line.
Extramural Activity 