A mosque rises between Samson and Goliath, the Harland & Wolff cranes, while in the lower third, people of different races and nationalities share the same streets of terraced housing.
Here are pictures of the launch on August 21st, part of the Active Communities Network‘s ‘Walk The Walls‘ event.
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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New Lodge soccer club St Patrick’s (Fb) have a new mural on the New Lodge Road, painted earlier this month by Ed Reynolds (steadyhanded.com).
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Olympic boxing champion (and former Ireland soccer player) Katie Taylor is currently 6-0 in her professional career. Her image is being used here as an inspiration (or warning?) to the children of Victoria nursery in the New Lodge. She was also featured in a mural outside Coláiste Feirste in west Belfast.
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Here is a vintage mural still hanging on in St James’s in west Belfast. It was painted in 1995 (by Andrea Redmond?) and dates back to the peace process and the “Green Ribbon” campaign to secure the release of political prisoners: the dove carries the keys to set them free. The graffiti on the keys, however, reads “IRA” and “FTQ” (“Eff the Queen”), and in the upper wing, “UTP” (“Up the Provos”).
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Twenty-five victims of five “Shankill atrocities” – at the Four Step Inn, the Balmoral Furniture Store, Mountainview Bar, Bayardo Bar, and (from the 1990s) Frizzell’s fish shop – are remembered in an updated board in Dundee Street. The central image remains 17-month-old Colin Nichol in the arms of ambulance man Bob Scott. (See the Peter Moloney Collection for the previous version. Before that, there was a painted version on Bellevue Street: Where is our truth?)
“30 years of indiscriminate slaughter by so-called non-sectarian Irish freedom fighters. Provisional Sinn Fein demands “equality/respect/integrity”. No military targets! No economic targets! No legitimate targets! No enquiries! No truth! No justice! Where is the “equality” in justice? Where is the “respect” for Protestants? Where is the “integrity” in murder? We remember the victims of Provisional Sinn Fein genocide.”
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Kids from the Divis youth project at the Frank Gillen Centre were involved in designing the new mental health mural which was unveiled last week in west Belfast. BelfastLive has pictures of the launch on (August 11th).
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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The inspiration for the new installation outside Coláıste Feırste entitled “Athbheochan” (“renewal”) is the area’s previous life as the site of spinning mills, established in the 1800s to take advantage of local rivers (Forbaırt Feırste). The Bog Meadows nature reserve down beside the M1 is the only part of the Blackstaff’s flood plain that remains in an undeveloped state.
The launch was on August 11th during Féıle by Maırtín Ó Muılleoır, but the piece is also part of Irish-language festival Lıú Lúnasa (web) which is going on this week. Artist Aodán Monaghan can be seen on the left in the final image of kids climbing all over the artwork.
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The old Bank Street (looking towards St Mary’s, Chapel Lane) is recreated in a new mural outside Manny’s fish and chips, though with some liberties taken. (Here is the street in 1915 and in 1924.) Kelly’s Cellars, for example, is where Bittles Bar is shown; Bittles Bar was the flatiron building on Victoria Street, recently sold.
Landmarks such as City Hall, the Titanic Centre, the H&W cranes, and An Chultúrlann are included. On the right side of the mural (see the wide shot, below) three murals are included: the one outside Madden’s Bar, the one on the West Belfast Taxi terminal and the Madonna And Child mural at the bottom of Divis that hasn’t existed since about 2000.
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The picture tells a thousand words and a few more are added around the top: “Individual, unique, cherished, treasured, miraculous, fearfully & wonderfully made. Survivor!” This is Mark Ervine’s piece for HitTheEast. In the in-progress shot below, Mark stands aside to let a local try her hand.
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IRA volunteer Francis Liggett was shot dead by the British Army during an attempted armed robbery at Royal Victoria Hospital, Falls Road in 1973 (Sutton) while local Sinn Féin member Paddy Brady was shot by the UFF while at work in 1984 (Sutton | An Phoblacht). They are commemorated in the St James memorial garden with the board shown above, featuring two verses from Bobby Sands’s poem Weeping Winds: Oh, Whispering [Whistling, in the original] winds why do you weep/When roaming free you are,
Oh! Is it that your poor heart’s broke/And scattered off afar?
Or is it that you bear the cries/Of people born unfree,
Who like your way have no control/Or sovereign destiny?
Oh! Lonely winds that stalk [walk] the night/To haunt the sinner’s soul/
Pray pity me a wretched lad/Who never will grow old.
Pray pity those who lie in pain/The bondsman and the slave
And whisper sweet the breath of God/Upon my humble grave.
The board is similar in design to the painted one it replaces, except that Éire was at the centre rather than the “SF” logo.
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 