The on-going mural campaign to build more public and affordable housing in Belfast reaches the PUL side of the “peace” line. The old “Lurkers” writing can be seen above.
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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Students from Coláıste Feırste, from Beechmount, west Belfast (tw), and Ashfield Girls’ High School, from Sydenham, east Belfast (tw) were involved in the exhibition Idır Dhá Aıgne in Cultúrlann in 2014 and the two schools again combined their artistic talents to produce these five collages of inspirational women: Katie Taylor and Noelle Ryan (by students from Coláıste Feırste), and the Brontë sisters, Ellen Degeneres, and Rosa Parks (by students from Ashfield Girls’).
With sponsorship from the Northern Ireland Executive and Féıle An Phobaıl. The mural is on the shoulder of the “peace” line, where North Howard Street meets Cupar Way, between This World Isn’t Worth Your Soul and Sinn Feins Stradgey, and above A Dialogue On The Nature Of Art.
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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Public Health England last Friday issued guidelines for reusing personal protective equipment (PPE) when stocks of fresh gowns, goggles, gloves, and masks run out. In response to concerns from local health workers, First Minister Arlene Foster has given assurances that the policy will not be adopted here (iTV | BelTel) but the on-going coronavirus pandemic means that the search for PPE continues. A quarter million gowns were transferred from Northern Ireland to England this week without any firm date for their being returned in kind (BelTel). The Orange Order, on the other hand, was able to make a contribution of masks and aprons via lodges both north and south (NewsLetter | Irish News). The mural is perhaps based on this banner.
The image below shows the mural at the time of its official launch on April 18th; it was added to the following week.
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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle
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Letter-boxes in nationalist west Belfast have sometimes been painted green (e.g. 2016), though blue and not green is the official colour of Ireland. The box shown above, across from the Royal Victoria Hospital, is blue not for Ireland but in support of NHS workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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“We support all essential workers.” The residents of John Street (behind Morning Star House) have made a sign by hand to express their “míle buíochas” for essential workers of many types: “Tescos workers, council workers, delivery drivers, security officers, NHS, taxi drivers, care home workers, community workers, postmen.”
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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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A home-made sign on cardboard “NHS – stay safe” has been attached to the mural to IRA volunteers Bobby McCrudden, Mundo O’Rawe, and Pearse Jordan, and the wall below it painted with the message “Stay home – Protect the NHS – Save lives”.
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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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“Victory to the workers. Victory to the NHS.” Republican graffiti from Lasaır Dhearg (tw) on the wall of the RVH, across the street from the NHS Blue post box. (And, in a different colour, “CIRA thanks NHS.”)
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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle (web | Fb)
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Artist Glen Molloy (Fb) has painted a portrait of Jesus Of Nazareth next to the Cupar Way “peace line” in the style of Shepard Fairey’s Obama ‘Hope’ poster (also the inspiration for De Craig’s Achieve! in east Belfast). Irish News report on the mural.
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Copyright © 2020 Sabine Troendle
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During the blitz, more than 900 people died, 1,500 people were injured, and half of the houses in Belfast were destroyed (WP).
This is only one of about 20 similar plaques erected in 2016 by Belfast City council to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the blitz of Belfast in 1941. (For images of others, see Wartime NI.)
This is the one in Ohio Street, on the side of the Woodvale Community Centre. Another one, on the Falls, can be seen in Suíomh Marbhlaınne.
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Copyright © 2020 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 