Episode 38 of the BBC’s “Year ’21” podcast considered the life (and diary) of a lamplighter in east Belfast who witnessed the violence that gripped the city in 1920-1922. The tribute on Newtowanards Road is by emic (web) with support from Daisy Chain (tw) and EastSide Partnership (tw).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08988 X08986
This signal box on the Holywood Road, Belfast, has been repainted by FGB (ig) to look like a Drumstick – not the musician’s tool or the chicken leg but the chewy lolly. The Drumstick dates back to 1957 (swizzels.com). Swizzels makes not just Drumsticks but also Refreshers, Double Lollies, Love Hearts, Double Dips, Lipsticks, and Whistles.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08977
Another mural on Upper Newtownards Road on the lamplighter theme: Ballyhack-Amore by Alana McDowell (ig | web). The name “Ballyhackamore” comes not from Italian but from Irish: Baile an Chacamair, town of the mud flat (PlaceNamesNI).
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08982 [X08981] X08980 Sandown Road
This is a small memorial to the fallen British soldiers tucked away in Ogilvie Street, Belfast, that serves to remind the locals always to keep the sacrifice of the 36th Division always in mind. Below is the board next to it, originally seen in 2013.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08883 [X08882] X08881
“It’s okay not to be okay” – These are the shutters of Beep’s ice-cream and sweet shop (Fb) on the Woodstock Road, painted last October in support of mental health in the community.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2022 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08885
“We are united by the Act Of Union, we won’t be divided by an act of betrayal.” The ‘act of betrayal’ in question is the Northern Ireland Protocol of Brexit which puts NI outside the single market but allows for the free movement of goods with the EU but not Britain – hence the “Irish Sea border”.
McMaster Street, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08786 [X08785]
In this board the Rising Sons Flute Band (“RSFB”) portrays itself as following in the footsteps of the Ulster Volunteers who joined the British Army and specifically the 8th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles in the 36th (Ulster) Division, which was drawn from east Belfast’s Ulster Volunteers in 1914. The insignia for the battalion is usually shown as dark blue rather than the black shown here – see the mural of 36th Division insignia in Canada Street. There is a similar board outside the band’s practice hall in Castlereagh Street.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08768 X8767 thiepval memorial
Titanic was built at Harland & Wolff shipyard in east Belfast; it took more than three years to build but was in service for only five days, as it famously hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic ocean. The welders formed their own football club, in 1965. The football and hockey players on the right are perhaps associated with Ledley Hall.
The final image is of the piece in 2014.
Cluan Place, east Belfast.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021/2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08783 X08782 X02460
Cobra Kai is the dojo of Johnny Lawrence (pictured above) who served as the villian of The Karate Kid back in 1984 (“Sweep the leg!”); the modern YouTube/Netflix series Cobra Kai is more sympathetic and more complicated – season 4 will be released on December 31st. The mural is by TOAR and NOYS in the Bloomfield Avenue alley behind the old Vault.
McMaster Street, east Belfast
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X08762 X08761 [X07776]
Chuck Schuldiner was the founder, vocalist, and guitarist of the metal band Death – one of the first “death metal” bands – from 1983 until his death at 34 from a brain tumour, twenty years ago today (WP). The mural in his honour is in the alley off Bloomfield Avenue, behind the former Vault HQ; it reproduces a Getty image of Schuldiner from 1995 holding a BC Rich Ignitor guitar, now out of production. Please leave a comment if you can decipher the artist’s sig.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2021 Extramural Activity
X08758 X08757
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 