Belfast

St Mary’s Chapel Lane

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

St Mary’s Chapel Lane is Belfast’s first post-penal law Catholic church, originally constructed in 1784 with funds from local Presbyterian and Anglican congregations (WP). The current building dates to 1868. It was made a “B1” listed building in 1979. The “doorcase” is described as follows in its entry: “Painted sandstone doorcase comprises a pair of round-headed door openings with vertically-sheeted timber doors and bowtel arches rising from squat green marble columns with elaborate stiff-leaf capitals surmounted by an oval niche housing a statue of St. Mary and flanking seraphims to the spandrels. The entire entrance is framed by a further bowtel arch with chevron moulding and outer hood moulding also rising from a pair of green marble columns.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04490

Much Love

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Jamie took his own life by hanging, in the park opposite this graffiti in Torrens Avenue. Northern Ireland has the UK’s highest suicide rate (19.3 deaths per 100,000 and 30.3 deaths per 100,000 for men – National Archives). Below is another piece of memorial graffiti, in Pilot Street. “RIP Kev – from Ben.” 

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04478 X04477

Portraits Of The Market

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Artist Raymond Henshaw undertook a series of six collages of photographs of the Markets area of south Belfast (in 2008): Social, Bars, Industry, Social History, Sport & Culture, and – shown in today’s post – Portraits of locals, such as snooker player “Joe Swales” (Joe Swail) and familiar buildings, such as Loughran’s Shop. The boards were part of the 2008 re-imaging campaign and sponsored by the Arts Council.

There were six boards in total: Portraits | Social | Social History | Sport & Culture | Bars | Industry

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04480 X04479

Fulton & Goatley

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

UDA members John Fulton and were Stephen Goatley were killed together in the Alexandra Bar on York Road (close to the Mervue Street location of this memorial) by the UVF as part of a UDA-UVF feud in 1975. The poppy is more often associated with the Ulster Volunteers (of WWI) and the UVF.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04410 quis separabit loving memory always be remembered

On The Other Side

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The stained glass from Townsend Street Presbyterian shown above depicts a scene from Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress, where Valiant-for-truth crosses over to his Father’s house. The glass was unveiled in 1922 in memory of “John Sinclair Martin of the 5th Royal Irish Rifles and his son Robert T Martin” (Beechgarave | History Hub Ulster).

Below is ‘Charity’ from the trio of ‘Faith, Hope, and Charity’ by Wilhelmina Geddes, unveiled 1914-02-08. 2016 saw the publication of a biography of Geddes (BelTel | Irish Times).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04476 X04475

St Joseph’s

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

Here are three stained glass windows from St Joseph’s in Sailortown. The designer of the glass is unknown – please get in touch if you know. The church was built in 1880 and has been idle since 2001; both the exterior (which we profiled in November 2017) and interior are in need of restoration. A plan exists to turn the building into a heritage centre (BMG).

For more church glass, see Townsend Street Presbyterian.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04472 X04473 X04474

Kingdom Of Dalaradia

Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The HUBB community centre is host to a number of social groups, including those represented in the mosaic above: the Old Comrades group, the Seaview chapter of the Royal British Legion, North Shore and Ladies Somme memorial groups, a spotlight (perhaps in connection with the Civil Defence bowling club? – the HUBB is in what used to be a civil defence building), and the Kingdom of Dalaradia society. According to the eponymous web site, Dalaradia was “was a kingdom of the Cruthin in the north-east of Ireland and parts of Scotland in the first millennium.” Hence, perhaps, the red hand of Ulster together with the Scottish thistle.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X04471