[This page is very much ‘in-progress’ – please send any information/images/sources you might have.]
There were a significant number of murals – so far we count sixteen – painted in New Lodge in the late 1980s that were not republican in theme but religious, cultural, and kids/community.
At least ten of these were painted by Con Campbell in 1986 and 1997 (along with various helpers). They generally seems to have survived at least into the mid-1990s. They generally did not survive past the year 2000.
Sean Nellis, from Pacific Ave, was a teacher and volunteer in youth clubs (including the Duncairn Play Scheme), which were involved in cross-community trips to Holland. At least four of the murals below are children’s murals; one portrays local children, and some children were involved in painting murals.
Nellis recruited Cornelius “Con” Campbell (b. 1946 in Tyrone), a brother of Nellis’s brother-in-law, to paint murals. Campbell had been painting some internal murals prior to this, including in the adventure playground in Unity Flats.
Nellis recalls a woman from the Divis flats (whose husband was shot dead in 1985/1986) who went to Medjugorje on pilgrimage, and gave talks when she came back, one of which Nellis and Campbell attended; they also went to Medjugorje.
Some paints were supplied by Joe Hughes.
Painting the murals in some cases had the bonus of covering graffiti. The buildings in the New Lodge were all in good condition at the time of painting but there was continuous rioting and sniping throughout the period. Tony Crowley’s image of the Gaelic Games mural from 1994 shows the plaster falling off and a lot of graffiti along the bottom, and Peter Moloney’s 1995 image of the Doves shows the wall in bad shape, though the wall was standing in 1999. Danny D produced pieces on two of the walls in 1999. It seems that redevelopment of the area began shortly after this time, as all of the images of these two pieces are from 1999.
The first three to be painted were a trio in Glenrosa St South …
(1) Big Tree (Glenrosa St S x Hillman St)
(2) Children And Butterflies (Glenrosa St S x U Meadow St): painted with faces of local children
(3) Gaelic Games, (Glenrosa St S x U Meadow St):
(4) “Our Lady Of Medjugorje” was also in Glenrosa St S (at Hillman St or U Meadow St?) (It showed a Madonna & Child rather than the Medjugorje apparition.) It is not known if this was painted at the same time as the other three. The date for this mural is perhaps 1986.
(This grouping of four comes from the book New Lodge 100 Years – January 2000, Joe Baker & Robert Kerr).
Campbell also painted (5) a Paschal Lamb mural on the waste ground on Lepper St, between U Meadow St and Hillman St, (where the school used to be and the youth club now is).
(X05493 from Donovan Wylie’s 1989 book 32 Counties. See also C00111)
(Wylie’s image shows a tree on the side-wall to the right. It is not known if Campbell also painted this.)
Campbell painted additional religious murals in the following locations over the course of 1986-1987:
unknown subject in the grounds of Holy Family church, Newington
[no image]
a version of stained-glass window in Clonard in Oranmore St/Springfield Rd, Clonard
See C01044
Our Lady Of Fatima in Clonard Monastery car-park
[no image]
Jesus, I Trust In Thee on a wall of the Divine Mercy b&b, on the R329 heading south into Knock, Co Mayo
Our Lady Of Medjugorje in Berwick Rd, Ardoyne
Madonna & Child on the Morning Star hostel, Divis
Mother Teresa in Turf Lodge
[no image]
Jesus, I Trust In Thee in Galliagh, Derry – Derry Journal gives 2003 as the date of creation but Peter Moloney’s image (M00990) is from 1991.
Knock Apparition in Oceanic Street, Newington. This piece was still visible in 2008 but possibly painted much earlier, though perhaps not in 1986-1987:
Also painted by Campbell in the New Lodge (dates unknown):
(6) Rider On Horse At Giant’s Causeway (Spamount St):
(7) Musicians (N Queen Street):
(8) Harpist, ?Edlingham St, junction unknown:
(9) To the right (the Hillman St side) of the Paschal Lamb mural along Lepper St, a Dolphin in the moonlight:
(10) Doves And Cartoon Characters in Glenrosa St S at Spamount St:
Other New Lodge pieces, not painted by Campbell (or not known to have been painted by Campbell):
(1) Táın/Celtic Ireland (N Queen Street at the bottom of the New Lodge Rd ?demolished 1990?)
(2) Swans Over Waterworks (N Queen Street):
[no image]
(3) Shamrock, Lepper St (perhaps at Spamount St):
See C04981
(4) Doves, Edlingham St, junction unknown: (And note the pine tree painted on the wall to the right.)
(5) Trees, Fox, And Bird, Upper Meadow Street:
[no image]
(6) Grazing Cows, unknown location:
[no image]
Rolston 1991 (p. 67, citing Irish News 1988-08-24) in passing mentions a 1987-1988 scheme called ‘Better Belfast’ which painted “the harvest scene in Springhill Avenue, the grazing cows in Upper Meadow Street, and the rolling hills on a corrugated iron “peace line” at Berwick Road”.
Later/other murals:
1988: the Joe Doherty mural by Mo Chara
1991: the Hunger Striker mural
1993: the Heroes Of 1916 mural
1995: The Great Hunger mural, painted in 1995 by “Farset Artists” (which included Jonny McKerr/JMK, later a street-artist); the Craıc ⁊ Ceol mural; the POW ‘keyhole’ mural
1996: Timeless Time (Aboriginal Australian)
1997: Presbyterians series (William Steel Dickson, William Drennan, McCrackens)
Timeline, in Henry Street – the images below show at most half of the complete sequence – a very blurry image of the whole thing appears in New Lodge 100 Years. Date unknown – the images are from 1997.
c. 1999, there were two pieces in Hillman Street, a mural of Leonard Peltier and a board of MLK. Both were done by Danny D, perhaps on buildings that had been by this time abandoned:
MLK board from 1999, Glenrosa St S at Hillman St, replacing the Big Tree:
Leonard Peltier mural from 1999, Glenrosa St S at Hillman St:
References in parentheses to mural collections:
C = Tony Crowley Collection
M = Peter Moloney Collection – Murals
T = Paddy Duffy Collection
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