“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.)
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.
At all of 19 years old, Cinderella on the stairs holds rank over her younger stable-mates in this panel from the ‘Disney Princesses’ mural in the Slıabh Dubh estate. (Among the Disney court, only Frozen‘s Elsa is older, at 21, though at the time of writing she is not officially a Disney Princess. Snow White was 14.) From left to right, the princesses and their familiars shown are: Fa Mulan, Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty), Belle (from Beauty And The Beast), Tiana (from The Princess And The Frog),Max (the dog from Little Mermaid), and the two Cinderella mice, Jaq and Gus.
For images of Ariel, Snow White and the wicked witch, and Anna from Frozen, see Look Behind You!
Here is a final image from the new wall of Disney characters in the Slıabh Dubh estate. (See previously: Look Behind You | If The Shoe Fits.) On Aladdin‘s magic carpet we have Princess Jasmine, Abu the monkey, and Iago the parrot, while on the stairs is Esmerelda (from The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and between them is The Owl from Sleeping Beauty. At the bottom we have Minnie Mouse, Figaro (from Pinocchio and also Minnie’s pet cat), and Daisy Duck.
Two wide shots can be found below. The first shows the entirety of the wall, the second shows (some of) the adjacent wall of superheroes. All 11 current Disney princesses are included, as well as the sisters Elsa and Anna from Frozen.
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.
Below is a wide shot of the four new CNB14/Hit The North pieces; in addition to this piece, they are (from left-to-right) Fill Up On Colour by Conzo Throb | Tony Alva Soul Sailor by Psychonautes | The Imaginarium by Elph; also new is the ‘banner’ above the writing, by DMC. At the extreme left (across the street) can be seen DMC’s Long Runs The Fox.
The previous board in this location said “‘yes’ to a better future” beneath a tiger, a rainbow, and a DJ at his turntables (see an image at CCDL). That future, it seems, is to go back to a mural similar to the one prior to 2009 – You’re entering Loyalist Tiger’s Bay – though the explicit UDA/UFF insignia are gone, leaving only the clenched fist.
Above, “End forced strip search, controlled movement” RNU/Cogús (web) stencil (“End forced strip search, controlled movement”) in front of a gallery of RNU/Cogús boards (see Until All Are Free We Are All Imprisoned).
Below, stencil of the iconic Che over his father’s words: “[In my son’s veins flowed the] Blood of an Irish rebel”. (See previously: Che Guevara Lynch.)
The Disney princesses (Snow White and Princess Anna, the younger sister from Frozen) are being watched, not just by the wicked witch, but by the communications tower on the Springfield Road barracks. There are two close-ups below, one of Ariel and Snow White, the second of Anna. The mural is new work by a local artist and local children in the Slıabh Dubh estate.
Last Saturday (2014-11-08) saw the launch of a new mural in Ballymurphy Crescent, celebrating local IRA volunteers and community workers.
The doves at the top of the mural are in the style of Robert Ballagh’s “Legacy Of The Hunger Strikes” though there are 12 doves here rather than 10. Marty Lyons holds a copy of Ballagh’s piece in an image below, along with an image on which the halberd and pistol around the beret and gloves in the bottom of the mural are based – the rifles of the original are absent. (Possibly by Patrick Magee, the Brighton bomber (WP) – please confirm by e-mail or comment.)
Left-hand portraits (counter-clockwise from top): Eileen Gray, Margaret Campbell, Annie Adams, Kathleen Moore, Lizzie McGivern, Joe Reid, Rosaleen Russell, Mary Armstrong, Agnes Robinson, Eileen Reid.
Standing (l-r): Fra Toner, Gerry Campbell, Liam Mulholland, Paddy Tier, Sean Connolly, Michael Kane, Liam McParland, Sean Doyle, Cllr. Sean Keenan, Pat McGeown.
Squatting/Kneeling (l-r): Jim McGrillen, Francis Toner, Jr., Jimmy Duffy, Tony McAlister, Billy Carson, Cormac McArt.
The main figure is (and remains from the previous mural) Tommy “Toddler” Tolan, who escaped from the Maidstone in 1972 and served time in the cages at Long Kesh. (See Lost Lives entry #1956 and An Phoblacht.) In the original (2001) version of the ‘Safe House’ mural, he was dressed in fatigues (image at CAIN), but this was changed within 18 months to a brown suit (Safe House | CAIN), similar to the way he is portrayed here.
The mural took some time to complete — the fifth image, below, shows one of the artists on a scaffold with #stoptorycuts on Slıabh Dubh in mid-October — partly because more and more figures were added.
Update 2014-11-26: In an unusual move, the launch of the mural was advertised by a board (rather than flyers), in this case at Dorothy Maguire Corner on the Whiterock Road – see the final image, below.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 