Stencil and graffiti in College Street (in the city centre; the Fountain Centre is visible in the background): “Don’t drone me, bro.” over a stencil of U.S. president Barack Obama. This image was taken the day the leader of the Pakistani Taliban was killed by a U.S. drone (Guardian). The Obama administration has launched six times more drone strikes in Pakistan than the Bush administration (WP). For the original phrase ‘Don’t tase me, bro’, see knowyourmeme.
Here are two more stencils about the Obama regime’s espionage programme, complementing the ‘Don’t Drone Me, Bro’ piece. Both are in Fountain Street. The first says “I see you” and the second “I promise I won’t look”.
Someone has written ‘Freedom’ next to the blackbird that feeds on the garbage cans in College Street Mews. As can be seen below, the bird is next to Don’t Drone Me, Bro.
Above is a scored clay piece showing workers in a “foundary” (foundry). There are foundries in Belfast dating to the mid-to-late 1700s (e.g. Eileen McCracken, “Charcoal-Burning Ironworks in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Ireland”, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 21 (1957)) but nothing specifically about 1767 or about a foundry in Exchange Place (or whatever preceded it – Exchange Place dates to the Victorian era). If you have information, please get in touch. There is a set of six pieces in a similar style on the Cupar Way “peace” line, regrettably covered in graffiti and tourists’ signatures. See also: Pot-House Lane.
Here are two of the panels (and a wide shot) done by davidcreative (web | Fb) in Exchange Place for Apocalypse Mime – a play that was readied for Culture Night Belfast (20th Sept.)
The first features the ‘no alibis’ book store, which is on Botanic Avenue and specialises in crime fiction, and a piece of ‘not for $hale’ graffiti (see previously). Here are some pictures of the work in progress.
“There can be no dignity in labour, till labour knows no master.” The statue of Jim Larkin in Donegall Street Place has been augmented with a massive mural celebrating the many unions which have membership in Ireland. 2013 marks the 100-year anniversary of the Dublin lock-out, which ran from August 1913 to January 1914. The images below show a close-up of the statue (which was previously recorded sporting a placard), three female figures in the border to the right of Larkin (Winifred Carney, Inez McCormack, and Betty Sinclair?) and finally, the plans for the piece, which were hanging on the left-hand wall prior to completion.
McElhatton’s and the Front Page/Fox’s Den has been sold and will be refurbished (Irish News). It’s not clear whether this mustache is a guerilla piece or at the impetus of the new owners.
Here are three shots of the “Ring Of Peace” mural, a massive, three storey piece in Waring Street, undertaken in 1998 to mark the Good Friday Agreement, by Francisco Letelier (with Jennifer Trouton, Colin McGookin, Marie Thérèse Davis) – here is a shot of the artist working on the piece. The mural shows four double-handed arms clasping each other in a circle against a back-drop of cosmic and nature scenes. In the lower portion, two human figures reach out to each other.
Here are two commercial murals in North Street, Belfast city centre. The first, above, was done last year (2012) by Friz (see her previously featured work), for Atomic Collectables; the second, below, is in front of The Chippie – artist unknown.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 