“Smash Stormont. Oppose Tory cuts.” INLA/IRSP stencil on Northumberland Street, calling for people to support a ‘day of action’ tomorrow (2015-03-13). Replaces These Colors Don’t Run.
Here is another set of tags (after the selection from the Cupar Way “peace” line in Sign Here), this time from the city centre, specifically Unity Walk and Garfield Street.
Gardiner Street graffiti: “God Bless Paisley, Fitt Never.” The graffiti is more than 40 years old, dating to 1969 or earlier (it appears in the Sunday Times magazine 1969-03-23). In 1971, Ian Paisley founded the DUP (in September) and had supplanted Terence O’Neill as the leading unionist politician. Gerry Fitt at that time had recently formed the SDLP and would represent West Belfast under that affiliation in 1974 and 1979 until Gerry Adams won the seat in 1983. The Northern Ireland Assembly was still sitting.
Local residents and children who helped construct the ‘Welcome To Sliabh Dubh’ mosaic at the top of the estate got to include their handprints as part of the artwork, under the direction of Martin McClure (according to a City Council brochure). As the other images (below) show, the area is also host to another mosaic depicting local landmarks from the past such as the Glenalina Bleaching Co and a cottage on the hills of Black Mountain as well as the superhero murals (Wallbusters | Cartoon World | Red-Eye) and Disney murals (some of which have been featured in If The Shoe Fits | Look Behind You! | Magic Mountain).
The ‘Welcome To The Shankill’ board is looking the worse for wear, as can be seen particularly in the three close-ups below of the Boyardo memorial at Aberdeen Street, the (previously featured) Malvern Arch mural in Hopewell, and the Crumlin Road Gaol. For the two strips of ‘famous faces’ on either side, see Welcome To The Shankill Road.
Patrick Devlin mashes-up the scratched-up Mr. Lee (from Bruce Lee’s final movie, Enter The Dragon, 1973) with the jacket-and-tie style of early Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction). On the door of the Red Barn Gallery.
Stencil street-art from Patrick Devlin outside the Red Barn Gallery in the city centre: a man in suit and tie is about to pull the pin on the grenade that is his head.
Above is another Patrick Devlin stencil at the Red Barn Gallery. Extensive research has failed to reveal who/what the stencil is based on – some sort of nose-picking gorilla-monster in a cowl. Leave a comment or send an e-mail if you have an idea.