Here are two shots of a long mural between Mountforde Road and Beechfield Street in east Belfast. It features a tree growing out of a book, a golden teapot, with teabag hanging out the side, and a street scene. “Drugs Out” has been helpfully graffitied at the far end.
There doesn’t seem to be any information at all about this mural on-line. So, if you have any leads, please e-mail or leave a comment.
The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus, white-headed sea-eagle (WP)) is typically found only in North America, but the one above can be found in Ballymurphy.
“A friend is a hand that is always holding yours no matter how close or far apart you be; A friend is someone who is always there and will always always care. A friend is a feeling of forever in the heart.” A new community mural in Ballymurphy shows locals seated in a circle of hands. Among the surrounding quotes (visible in the second image, below) are two lines from Robert Burns’ Auld Lang Syne (“And there’s a hand my trusty friend [fiere] And gies [gie’s] a hand to [o’] thine”, and, “We’ll take a cup of kindness yet For auld lang sang [syne]”)
The other lines are from …
I’ll Tell Me Ma (“Out she comes as white as snow, rings on her fingers a bells on her toes”, and, “My Aunt Jane she called me in, she gave me tea out of her wee tin”)
I Know My Love (“I know my love by her way of walking”)
The Gypsy Rover (“The gypsy rover came over the hill, down through the valley so shady”)
The Fields Of Athenry (“Low lie the fields of Athenry, where once we watched the small free birds fly”)
The Cobbler (“Oh, my wife she is humpy, she’s lumpy, my wife she’s the devil, she’s black, and no matter what I may [do] with her, her [tongue it goes clickety-clack]”)
and a skipping song (“On the hillside stands a lady, who she is I do not know”)
A wide shot (third below) shows the other two murals on this stretch of Ballymurphy Road: Between and Bryson-Mulvenna.
Above is another panel from the new Lodge multi-panel community mural done by Ed Reynolds on North Queen Street, based on vintage photographs of locals. In the lower right-hand corner are the words “Tilly & Margaret Moreland”.
Ed Reynolds has completed a set of more than 20 panels at the switchback steps and ramps that lift pedestrians from North Queen Street into the New Lodge estate. As described on his web site, many of the panels are based on old photographs of the area and its residents. The work was officially unveiled on Wednesday (June 18th) and was sponsored by New Lodge Arts and Belfast City Council.
St. Patrick’s on Donegall Street serves as the local Catholic church for the New Lodge. Its spire rises above the houses in a detail from the community mural at the bottom of the New Lodge, painted by Ed Reynolds (steadyhanded.com), based on vintage photographs of the area and its residents.
Here is a final set of images of the New Lodge community mural, painted by Ed Reynolds. Above is a detail from one of the panels. Below are a wide shot of the whole, a picture of Ed repairing the vandalism which can be see towards the left of the wide shot, and finally one of the crew covering the piece in an anti-graffiti varnish.
More images of the work in progress can be seen at Ed’s web site, steadyhanded.com.
The waste-ground at the corner of Templemore Avenue and Newtownards Road (where the flyers featured in Harland & Why were posted) was given a face-lift with images of east Belfast heroes Van Morrison and George Best and the words “East Side – Inspiring Belfast”. The red-white-and-blue is supplied by the phone-boxes and the passer-by.
A young girl wearing an adult’s pushes a pram in the first of a dozen panels from the new ‘Fáılte go dtí Ard Eoın’ mural in Ardyone Avenue. The image is perhaps based on the (unattributed) photo, shown below the images of the mural.
2-3: The woman on the right is a spinner – her job is to ensure that the fibres of threads being wound together to make a strong thread do not break. The occupation of the man on the right is unknown. Please comment or send an e-mail if you recognize his occupation.
5-6: Two panels featuring boxers, possibly Freddie Gilroy and Eamonn Magee — leave a comment or e-mail if you can identify either.
8: Holy Cross church on the Crumlin Road.
9: A British soldier patrols the streets while a girl walks home from school and a boy plays hurley. This is one of the panels in the long mural at the shops on Ardoyne Avenue.
10-11: Two go-karters appear to be brandishing bottles as they ride while, to their left, two (rather stylish?) youths appear to be banging bin-lids.
“Is fearr Gaeılge brıste ná Bearla [Béarla] clıste” means “Broken Irish is better than clever English”.
“There’s a nice wee place in Belfast, they call it Sandy Row. On a Saturday night, that’s where we used to go. A bucket on the stove, boiling all the whites, the big tin bath on Saturday nights.”
Here are two boards at the blind end of Blythe Street which together illustrate a short poem about Sandy Row in days gone by. The first, above, shows dancing and bingo (which took place in the Sandy Row Orange Lodge? – The Row You Know: Memories Of Old Sandy Row (ISBN 0953053504) by Donna McCann and published by Nicholson & Bass contains an image with the caption “Saturday night dance at the Orange Hall – Hector McMillan about to break into song”.)
The second, below, shows scenes from home: clothes in front of the fire, a child in a tin bath, a wireless radio, and a grandmother dandling a child.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 