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2013-01-22 UVFPilgrims+

A UVF mural featuring three masked paramilitaries over the car park of Iceland (a supermarket chain) on the Newtownards Rd. The line “We are the pilgrims, master; we shall go always a little further” comes from a 1913 poem by James Flecker. This mural was painted in May 2011, at a time when, in contrast, paramilitary murals were being replaced (BBC-NI). The in-progress shot below is from 2011-05-28.

X00506 2011-05-28 Pilgrimsprog+

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Copyright © 2011 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00905 X00506 for god and ulster, east belfast

Let Your Union Fly Flag

2013-01-24 FlyTheFlag+

Graffiti in east Belfast concerning the on-going dispute over the union flag on Belfast City Hall: Be proud to fly your flag. No surrender!

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Piece Process

2013-01-24 JigsawPieces+

Walk over the Albert Bridge onto the Short Strand and just before you turn into Mountpottinger Road on your left there is a little park known as ‘An Glas – The Green’; these jigsaw pieces can be seen there, hanging on the wire fencing facing out onto the main road. See the wide shot and text below for more about the project. Launched 2008-11 (BBC-NI).

2013-01-24 JigsawWide+

Frankie Quinn of the Red Barn Gallery has a a photograph of the two little boys in the bottom left of the board as adults. Also in the background (proceeding anti-clockwise) one can see MickeyMarley’sRoundabout and the old Scirocco Works factory, as well as the Harland & Wolff cranes Samson and Goliath, Belfast CityHall, and the wire sculpture next to the Waterfront.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00907 X00908 final piece to the jig-saw; this artwork came about by the working in partnership with a number of community groups schools and agencies namely the lower castlereagh community group short strand community forum beechfield primary school st. matthews primary conflect resolution consortium the core project northern ireland housing executive and the relations council; had the idea of an interface art project involving that are situation along the interface; also approached the artists for the project who are two east belfast artists; worked with the young people involved to come up with the idea as to what the artwork should look like with the end result being a picture taken of all the smiling and laughing together and then their eyes and moths taken out of the picuture and portrayed on the big pieces on the interface wall

A Short Treatise On The Ephemerality Of Art

2013-01-04 NikoPraise+

Q: Praise’s piece in North Street has been …?
(a) vandalized
(b) improved
(c) replaced
(d) all of the above
(e) other

Explain your answer in the comments. Also on Extramural Activity: An Essay On The Necessity Of Art | Fuck Art | A Dialogue On The Nature Of Art

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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For Freedom Alone

This is the fourth version of the UFF mural on the first gable in “Freedom Corner” along the Newtownards Road but the changes are minor compared with the 2009 version: the jacket and skyline are darker in colour. The mural shows a balaclava’d volunteer with assault rifle and a modified version of the Declaration of Arbroath: “For as long as one hundred of us remain alive we shall never in anyway consent to submit to the Irish for it’s not for glory, honour or riches we fight but for freedom alone which no man loses but with his life – U.D.A./U.F.F”

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The Queen’s Golden Jubilee

Lord Street mural the ERII’s golden (50th) jubilee in 2002. The Beaconsfield Arms is on the left (perhaps the name of the Cock & Hens in 1952) and the previous Ledley Hall school (now Ledley Hall youth club) is on the right.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01544

Big Brother

2013-01-07 DukeBigBrother+

A 3-D/plane-breaking board/collage from the courtyard of the Duke Of York, featuring King Kong on the Empire State building (1933), Atlas (Metropolis 1927), a zombie (also from Metropolis?), riot police controlled by a puppet-master, Hokusai’s Great Wave Of Kanagawa 1830, WWI biplanes, a steamer/cruise-ship with searchlight? and something that looks like the Giant’s causeway?? (Leave a comment if you can correct these, or recognise the car with L plates (Death Proof 2007 – thanks Bob) or Hollister on the document folder.)

2013-02 Update: Artists Ciaran Gallagher and Kathryn Bannister have a gallery of pictures of the piece being constructed and installed. The piece, they say, is inspired by “classics of the silver screen” and was part of Culture Night 2011.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Cultural Apartheid

2013-01-17 CulturalApartheid+

North Belfast Against Cultural Apartheid. Mount Vernon in the rain, January 17th, 2013. (Previously: Mount Vernon Welcome You)

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Nationalism

2013-01-15 Nationality+

A mural on a low wall in east Belfast: The Ulster conflict is about nationality. This we shall maintain. UK.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00902 scotland england wales, daffodil, thistle, rose, samson, goliath, harland and wolff, blue sky

Over The Top

2013-01-02 TimesSommeDetail+

Detail of a mural commemorating the battle of the Somme in the courtyard of the Times Bar, York Road. The mural is probably based on the work of JP Beadle, such as the painting “Battle of the Somme: Attack of the Ulster Division”, which hangs in Belfast City Hall (militaryprints.com).

Wide shot below …

2013-01-02 TimesSommeWide+

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X00879 X00880