This stencil is at the top of Springhill Avenue, painting grounds of Gerard ‘Mo Chara’ Kelly and Gael Force Art. Mo Chara is in fact currently working on the Falls Road at McQuillan Street, painting a mural of the GPO in flames in 1916.
The Socialist Party flyer above on Royal Avenue urges Belfast residents to pay attention to the on-going protests against water charges in the Republic as a way of learning how to resist any cuts implemented by Stormont. Yesterday marked one in a shifting series of deadlines for registration for the water scheme and rallies were held in various southern cities (Independent). Water charges have been ruled out in the North until at least 2015 (Tele).
“Titanic Sinks” is the headline of the newspaper in this recent mural in east Belfast. In fact, news was hard to come by in the first few days after the sinking in the early morning of April 15th, 1912, as Titanic sank a thousand miles from New York and wireless was the only means of communication. The Evening Sun’s headline on April 15th (which might be partially reproduced here) announced “All Titanic Passengers Are Safe; Transferred in Lifeboats at Sea” (image at Pratt Library). Here is a NYTimes article about the difficulty in getting reliable news in the days after the sinking. This is new work by John Stewart. (Report on the launch at NIHE.)
A tale of two east Belfasts: above is the playground at Pitt Park (next to the Ballymac Youth Centre’s SafeZone); below is Dee Street at its junction with Medway and Severn Streets and next to the Connswater Women’s Group (see The Verticality Of The Divine): “Quis Separabit • Simply the best • UFF • UDA”.
On one side are children rock-climbing and canoeing, on the other are the masks of tragedy and comedy and a skeletal Death, shrouded in vapours from an earth split open and cloaking a multitude of souls ensnared with needle, pipe, and pills. The south wall of the Ballymac Youth Centre in Pitt Park promises a safezone from the “devastation of suicide” or becoming “addicted to death”. Harland & Wolff’s Goliath stands in the background.
The tropical ravine in the Botanic Gardens is closed for renovation over the winter. The large plants which could not be moved had to be wrapped up as protection against the cold. (Belfast City Council) The ravine – including the elevated interior walkway shown above – was the brain-child of Charles McKimm (Ulster History Circle) whose blue plaque is shown in the second image. The images in this post were taken on the day before closing.
The Andy Tyrie Interpretive Centre on the Newtownards Road was opened on August 31st, 2012 (FB) and includes UDA/UFF memorabilia from troubles, including the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council Strike in which the centre’s namesake, then head of the UDA, played a large role (WP).
“End partition” was the message on the mountain (Black Mountain/Slıabh Dubh) last week, shown here between Clonard Monastery on the left (where the Hume-Adams talks took place in 1988 and 1993) and the Cupar Way “peace” line on the right.
Disney’s The Jungle Book is featured in this new kids mural in New Barnsley/Moyard, with Flunkey the langur (above), with from right to left, Kaa the python, (Dumbo), Shere Khan the Bengal tiger, Buzzie & Dizzie two of the four vultures (based on that other Fab Four, the Beatles (Disney Wiki)), Hathi and Junior the elephants,(Bambi) and the three wolf pups who grow up with Mowgli.
As the wide shot (last image, below) shows, politics is never very far away: there is pro-Hamas graffiti on the pavement. Write-up of the launch.