Belfast south

Defenders Of The Pass

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2014-08-09 DonPassPhoto+

Here are close-ups of the two boards to either side of the new Young Conquerors piece (featured recently in Veni, Vidi, Vici). The first shows a photograph of the original Donegall Pass Defenders Flute Band, which lasted a short time in the 1970s before the formation of the Conquerors in 1977 (Fb). The second shows the patch of the band.

Update (2015-01): Nikki has kindly sent us an image of the band parading, taken sometime in the 1970s. Her grandfather, Thomas Lorimer, recently passed away and she found the picture in his roof space. He was a member of the Defenders and is at the far left of the picture, on the bass drum. She was also able to identify him in the posed picture from the board – shown in detail below; he is the tall gent in the back.

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Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Copyright © Family of Thomas Lorimer. Used with permission.

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First Movement

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2014-08-08 MarketsFiacc+

Patrick O’Connor was born on this day in 1924 on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraıc Fıacc (“fıach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:

Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind
Sift on far-off Ards
Drift hazily …
I was born on such a morning
Smelling of the bone yards
The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs
The wayward storm birds
And to the east where morning is, the sea
And to the west where evening is, the sea
Threatening with danger
And it would always darken suddenly

Some of Fıacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. There are two videos below. The first is an interview with NVTv’s Bernard Conlon; the second is of a reception in Belfast City Hall.

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End The Siege On Gaza

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2014-08-08 MarketsGazaDetail+

Tears of blood flow from a boy’s face, shrouded by a Palestinian flag and behind barbed wire. The shot below of the full mural (launched 2014-07-29) includes a quote from Malcolm X: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the oppressor.”

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Buried Treasure

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2014-06-12 PirateMaiden+

From the pages of a book spring a world of adventure: a sailor lass looks through a spyglass for landmarks that will lead to buried treasure, where “X” marks the spot, while the ship is assailed by a tentacled monster from the deep. Work by friz (Twitter | Web) outside the Crescent Arts Centre on University Road, with shots of the writing to the left and right (by some the TMN crew), and a quote from John Webster’s Duchess Of Malfi, below: “Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.”

Also recently by Friz: The Cat That Got The Cream

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Full-Bodied

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2014-05-29 BuckfastDog+

A dachshund looks quizzically at a bottle of buckie (Buckfast tonic wine – fortified to 15% alcohol) left on the wall. Street art by Verz (Fb | Web), officially entitled “Sausage”, on the wall outside the Crescent Arts Centre, just off University Road.

Another of Verz’s ‘Dogs On The Street’ series: Psychedelic Dog

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Mr Saturday Night

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2014-05-29 MrSaturdayNight1b+

“There’s a nice wee place in Belfast, they call it Sandy Row. On a Saturday night, that’s where we used to go. A bucket on the stove, boiling all the whites, the big tin bath on Saturday nights.”

Here are two boards at the blind end of Blythe Street which together illustrate a short poem about Sandy Row in days gone by. The first, above, shows dancing and bingo (which took place in the Sandy Row Orange Lodge? – The Row You Know: Memories Of Old Sandy Row (ISBN 0953053504) by Donna McCann and published by Nicholson & Bass contains an image with the caption “Saturday night dance at the Orange Hall – Hector McMillan about to break into song”.)

The second, below, shows scenes from home: clothes in front of the fire, a child in a tin bath, a wireless radio, and a grandmother dandling a child.

Sponsored by the Sandy Row Women’s Group.

Two more boards are shown in Those Days Are Gone. A gallery of all of the pieces on the wall can been seen in a 2007 entry.

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Fortune Favours The Brave

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2014-05-29 WeaversWinners+

“Weavers To Winners” – Linfield Football And Athletic Club was founded in 1886 by workers at the Ulster Spinning Company’s Linfield mill and they became Irish League champions in the 1890-1891 season. The names of the players in the photograph are given in the shot of the information plaque, below. The work was designed by Ross Wilson.

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X03004 X03005 Audaces fortuna juvat 50 league titles trevor whip whittley 7-7-1960 24.2.2011 missed by all his friends in sandy row william gordon tom gordon n. mckeown dr. dunn robert gibson esq (president) bob milne rab torrans william arnott david foy treasurer billy dalton george gaffikin robert hill sam torrans john pedan john torrans secretary john rab and sam torrans were three brothers who shared a dream they were ulster weavers who with others practiced their football skills on the meadow and linen field within the local mill in 1886 their dreams became a reality and the first linfield team was born within four short years they had become irish league and cup champions and had now woven themselves into history 125 years later players still dream and press on towards the goal they still make the hearts and mind of fans everywhere beat louder when they take to the field still sharing the aspirations of the brothers and countless others who have worn the true blue colours today we must still encourage the dreams of young people within sandy row and other communities to help awaken inspire and engage young minds and hearts in the reality of every day life to help create new and better goals to move forward in the hope of great things to come field of dreams