Two kids’ murals from the bottom of St James, where the ‘Garden Of Hope’ community farm is (and next to Music Is Our Drug), one showing various insects and the other (“St James Goes Wild”) showing the sun rising over a meadow of flowers.
A border of Celtic knot-work and the shields of the four provinces has been added to the Ard Eoın Kickhams mural at the top of Havana Way. (For the previous version, see The Heart Of Our Community.)
“From Warsaw to Berlin” — Polish airmen in England, in the 300 Mazovian bomber squadron, write a “dedication” on a bomb headed for Germany in August 1941. The plane added as a background is perhaps an Avro Lancaster, while the one in the middle ground (in the wide shot, below) is a Vickers Wellington. According to the information board (shown last, below) “many Polish servicemen remained in Great Britain and Ireland after the [Second World] war, laying the foundations for a large Polish community that now (in Northern Ireland) numbers over 30,000.”
The Belfast Pride festival runs from July 29th to August 7th this year, with a parade on the 6th. 8 weeks ago today (on June 12th) 49 people were shot to death in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The images below are from Ardoyne Avenue and Northumberland Street.
Here are five images of the St. James Youth mural on Rodney Parade across from the farm: “Music is our drug – R speaker is R dealer” and “Mates do hugs, not drugs”.
Northern Ireland take on Wales in the Euro 2016 football championship after qualifying for the knockout stage with a 2-0 win over Ukraine, with goals by Gareth McAuley (featured in the mural) and Niall McGinn.
Voters (finally!) go to the polls today in the much-discussed “Brexit” referendum. Opinion on the nationalist side is split – the image above advises “leave” “for independence, for democracy, for freedom, for Europe, for peace” while in the third image the poster is pro-remain with the suggestion that “We’re better off in.” In between, a poster in a loyalist area alleges that “We send the EU £50 million every day — let’s spend that on our NHS instead.”
Northern Ireland plays its second match in Euro 2016 today against Ukraine in Lyon, France, hoping to improve on the 1-0 loss to Poland in the first game. Danish beer-maker Carlsberg, whose national team did not make it to the championship, is an official sponsor of the tournament and is advertising in connection with the championship both north and south. The hoarding above is just off Sandy Row in south Belfast, above a UDA/UFF mural “in proud memory of our fallen comrades”.
Snooker player Alex “Hurricane” Higgins died on this day, July 24th, in 2010. He was inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame in 2011 as (twice) winner of the World Snooker Championship, UK Championship, and (twice) Masters. Upon winning the 1982 World Championship, an emotional Higgins was joined on the floor by his wife Lynn Avison and (shown above) daughter Lauren.
This is one of the panels of the long community mural in Stroud Street, painted in 2012.
The image below is from a Twelfth bonfire collection point in Belvoir in April, threatening a fifty pound fine for anyone caught dumping unwanted material. The image above of a collection point near Sandy Row articulates what is unwanted: ironing boards, chairs, washing machines, sofas, sinks, fridges, wheels, comfy chairs, toilets, beds, stoves. This Belfast Telegraph article includes a good image of the pallets gathered in the car-park.