Yesterday we had ‘Barcelona Past’ in the form of Patrick “Don Patricio” McConnell (The Don); today we have ‘Barcelona Present’, in the form of Lionel Messi. The Argentinian forward is shown in front of the Spanish League cup, which Barcelona won this year (2014-2015) with a goal from “La Pulga” (“the flea”) – Messi is 5’7″ but four-time world player of the year.
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Here is part of the new Patrick O’Connell, “Don Patricio”, mural at the bottom of the Whiterock. As a player, the Dublin-born O’Connell started with Belfast Celtic before moving on to various English and Scottish clubs, including a period at Manchester United at the time of WWI. He then went on to manage a string of Spanish clubs. As manager of Barcelona during the Spanish civil war, he accompanied the club on their tour of Mexico and the United States. The money from the tour saved the club from bankruptcy but 12 of the 16 players went into exile in Mexico and France. (WP) Barcelona returns to the US this month (2015-07) for games against the LA Galaxy, Manchester United, and Chelsea. (FCBarcelona)
The newspaper in the mural above crams all of this news onto one page: “Civil war erupts in Spain – Barcelona bombed”, “Football suspended – President [of FC Barcelona] Josep Sunyol assassinated” [by Franco’s troops] (WP); “Irishman O’Connell takes players on tour – FC Barcelona saved from extinction”; “Funds lodged in Switzerland”. In the bottom left-hand corner of the newspaper is Robert Capa’s famous photograph of ‘The Falling Soldier’, purporting to show a Republican soldier at the very moment he is struck by a bullet and dies. The image is now thought to have been staged (WP).
The image on which the portrait is (perhaps) based can be seen in this Irish Times article on O’Connell.
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June 15th saw the official ‘Arts For All’ launch of a mural shown all the way back in January. For the launch, artist Jonny McKerr added backgrounds to the cross-maker and bugler on the low wall in front, and the information-board in the centre was added. For background and the images on which the mural is based, see The Home Front.
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X02678 X02679 X02680 this mural shows images from the years 1912-1918 show what was happening at home and on the battlefield during the first world war and the years leading up to the war it is estimated over 16 million people died and 20 million were wounded one of the bloodiest in history two million horses reflects people’s lives changed part of a battle keeping communities going images decided after a lengthy consultation and research process study visits local aspects of life during those years women were employed range of jobs not previously had access to welder belfast shipyard workers went on strike for improved terms and conditions in 1917 throughout ireland left their families behind fight for king and country important medical care delivering coal to homes and factories keep industry alive battle of the somme 1st july 18th november 1916 on the banks in northern france over 1,000,000 were wounded or killed in human history irish soldiers 36th ulster division suffered more than 5,000 casualties on the first day employed to make crosses to mark the graves buried in unmarked graves bugler played the last post in british army camps to signal the end of the day when the duty officer returned to the field badhes of the 19 regiments from the island of ireland 80,000 cases of shell shock affected the poet sigfried sassoon the past is just the same and war’s a bloddy game have you forgotten yet? look down and swear by the slain of the war that you’ll never forget
The ‘Cemented With Love’ mural on Oak Street (Donegall Pass) has been repainted for the 2015 marching season. According to the painted note in the bottom left corner, it was originally painted in 1989 on the 25th anniversary of the erection of the arch in nearby Lindsay Street. The mural shows William of Orange rearing back his horse in the Boyne river while a Jacobite soldier in green, white, and gold expires on the shore (shown below along with a close-up of William and horse).
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The tall ships will be in Belfast July 2nd to 5th for the start of a race that will take them to Norway and then to Denmark. The first of about 80 ships have already arrived. The mural above is on the quay-side of the Rotterdam bar. The design, by 16 year-old Daniel Hamilton, is the winner of a Belfast Telegraph competition.
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Englishman Clive Dutton was an urban planner who was best known for work in Birmingham, London (Newham), and Belfast. He produced “The Dutton Report” in 2004 and “The Big Plan” (pdf) (the cover of which is pictured in the mural) in 2013. In them, he proposed and then updated a plan to tackle economic deprivation in west Belfast by the creation of a ‘Gaeltacht Quarter’ or ‘Ceathrú Gaeltachta’. He died on June 8th at the age of 62 and the mural above has been painted in remembrance.
The photograph of Durron reproduced here can be seen at The Guardian. The Big Plan was celebrated with a mural recorded previously.
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This Saturday and Sunday (June 20th and 21st), Belfast Community Circus celebrates its 30th birthday with two days of events and performances in the Cathedral Quarter, including a world record-breaking (hopefully) pie fight. Kev Largey (KVLR) last month placed two “foolish” figures among the acrobats on the front wall of the organization’s Gordon Street headquarters, a lobster having a drink of weasels wearing hats and a rambler with a patched bed-roll and basket of spray-cans. (Also seen in paste-up form outside the Sunflower – see Costume Party.)
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The history of music is told (from right to left) in a new mural. The gramophone gives way to the cassette and then to the CD and finally the iPod, with a mic and speakers in the middle. The suggestion, presumably, is that life in east Belfast also changes. From Blaze FX, who also did the Teenage Dreams repaint on the other side of the flyover, and local youths from both Short Strand and Newtownards Road.
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Seamus Heaney took up the pen where his father and grandfather had worked with the spade. A copy of his poem Digging was, along with others, placed on the Alexandra Park “peace” line but has been torn off in favor of the preferred mode of expression of the next generation: the spray can.
For more Heaney as public art, see The Hunting Heart.
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A new mural on Colinview Street/Sráıd Radharc Chollan celebrates local sports: first (shown above) is the Clonard water polo club (Fb), second (in the wide shot, below) is Ryan Devine of Anderstonstown Trampoline Club, junior sportsman of the year, 2014 (Fb), and third, Clonard GAA. The mural is on the side wall of The Flush newsagents, near the former location (above ground) of the Farset and Forth rivers, where dams and races were put in to supply a cotton mill and linen mill and, later, a laundry, a hat-makers, and a biscuit factory. The river, flowing south, then became the Blackie in Beechmount. (Information gleaned from the Belfast Forum).
The final image below is the cartoon for the water polo part of mural, which was begun back in February.
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 