Belfast north

The Great Hunger

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2014-02-20 AntOcrasMor+

This New Lodge mural shows people on the coast, near abandoned buildings, trying to grow crops during the period of the Great Hunger 1845-1852.

“An tOcras Mór” (a literal translation of “the great hunger/famine”) is usually (in Irish) “An Gorta Mór” or “An Drochshaol”.

The left-most and right-most figures are from Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field in the Illustrated London News. ILN images are a staple of Belfast muraling on the Great Hunger: see the Visual History page on the Great Hunger. (Here is a list, with links, of all of the illustrations of Ireland in ILN from the period 1845-1852.)

The two central figures, and the composition of the three women together, come from Millet’s The Gleaners. (Thanks to Jeryn Mayer for this pointer.)

There is a Visual History page on the Hunger in murals.

X12048 2023-02-17 Ocras Mór d1

X12049 2023-02-17 Ocras Mór d2+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014/2023 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01699 X12048 X12049 [X12050] [X12051]

Naming Our Streets

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2014-02-04 WinifredCarneyRoad+

The Antrim Road at Carlisle Circus also bears the street-name ‘Winifred Carney Road’ (top left of the image above), as part of the ‘Naming Our Streets’ project. Carney’s name was chosen for this location – SIPTU offices – because she was a trade unionist and also because she grew up on Carlisle Circus. For more information, including biographies of 50 historically important Belfast women, seven of whom were honoured in this way, see the Women’s Resource & Development Agency.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01663 SIPTU

Reserved

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2013-12-28 Reserved+

The final large spot on (republican) Northumberland Street wall has been claimed, we know not by whom. A small, bookmark-shaped, span of wall also remains further down the road. See the Visual History page for Northumberland Street for details.

“Watch this space”, as they say. Or, as in the piece (below) on the Cliftonville Road (first seen last year), “new mural loading”.

The piece in the centre-left is one to O’Neill & Beattie.

12 09 11 NewMuralLoading+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01524 X00625 hourglass timer bee

Martin Meehan

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2013-11-04 Meehan+

Above is a recently unveiled printed banner to Martin Meehan, an IRA volunteer from the local Ardoyne area. As can be seen from the flyer in the second image, the launch took place on November 3rd, on the sixth anniversary of his death. A gallery of images of the launch can be found at Demotix. The photograph which informs the controversial central portion can be seen on Meehan’s WP page. The piece was paint-bombed on Nov. 6th (Irish News)

Replaces The Flight Of The Earls, and before that, Collusion Is Not An Illusion.

2013-11-04 MeehanReflection+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01431 X01432 Ardoyne Ave independent commemoration in honour of óglach sunday 3rd avenue organized by family & friends fáılte gach daoıne everyone welcome poblacht na héıreann the provisional government of the irish republic 1945-2007

Morris – Dolan

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2013-10-23 MorrisDolan+

Above is a new plaque (unveiled August 11, 2013) in Etna Drive/Corán An Ardghleanna (in Ard Eoın) to Seamus Morris and Peter Nolan, who were shot by the Protestant Action Force (UVF) twenty-five years ago, in August 1988. It reads “Brutally murdered for their faith …  by loyalist death squad aided by British crown forces. Never forgotten by family and friends.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01413 in proud and loving memory aged 18 25 years

The Hard Road

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2013-10-22 BootsyBegley+

Thomas “Bootsey” Begley died when a bomb he was carrying into a fish shop on the Shankill Road exploded. The bomb killed Begley and nine others. The plaque above was unveiled in Ardoyne on October 20th, 2013 – twenty years after the event – to protests from relatives of the deceased (BBC-NI).

See also the plaque on the Shankill to the nine people who died.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01408 belfast brigade oglach died on active service 23rd october 1993 always remembered by his many comrades and friends it takes courage and devotion to your people to take the hard road to freedom seamus twomey

The Belfast Blitz

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2013-09-19 Blitz+

Above is a new mural by JMK (Jonny McKerr – Fb) in Hogarth Street (in Tiger’s Bay) with images of the Belfast Blitz – in the apex a Nazi bomber sets buildings alight; in the main panel, people, including a milkman, walk among the bombed-out buildings.

900 people died and half the homes in Belfast were destroyed or damaged (WP).

In the bottom right corner, men listen to a woman testing a piano after it was moved – the original can be seen at Communities NI. The garden wall (to the right of the shot) has an outline on it but is not yet finished.

Update 2013-10-16: The garden wall to the right has been completed. It features a painted frame surrounding a manufactured plaque. See below for an image.

2013-09-19 BlitzDetail+

2013-10-16 BlitzPlaque+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01318 X01319 X01395 this mural is dedicated to the people who lost their lives in tiger’s bay on the 16th april 1941 during the belfast blitz anderson brown campbell carson christy clarke donnnelly dornan duffy erskine fee flack gordon halliday hillis howard irwin jerwood kennedy kinghan lilley lynas lyttle mcatamney mcavoy mccary mccullough mcdowell mchugh mcintyre mcilwayne mckinty mcknight mclellan mcneil millar miller moore mulhulland pollock renton rossborough spratt taggart toogood venn venton warwick wilson

Work Ethic

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment
2013-09-19 GardenLeft+

Three images of a low wall mural in Hogarth Street (in Tiger’s Bay). Above is the right-hand side, showing workers of a former era heading home from the shipyard. One of the H&W cranes can be seen in the background (and to its left, the new Titanic centre). Below is the right-hand side of the piece, depicting a preacher with a sandwich board: Seek, and you shall find – Matthew: 7:7.

The artist is JMK, who also did the Belfast Blitz mural on the other side of the street.

2013-09-19 GardenRight+

2013-09-19 GardenWide+

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01320 X01321 X01322