Here are close-ups, and a final wide-shot, of the “Reaching Out” suicide-prevention mural in Springmadden on the Springfield Road, painted by Lucas Quigley.
Above, a girl is carried away by balloon hearts; below, a fox peeks out from behind giant sunflowers and foliage sporting a ladybird while a butterfly looks on.
The Giro d’Italia (Tour Of Italy) got off to a rainy start in Belfast yesterday (Friday May 9th, 2014) with a team time-trial. While there was talk in February of removing not just election posters (BBC) but also flags and murals (BBC), and the tourist board and Department of Enterprise hopes that spectacular scenes (through the rain) from the north Antrim coast will recoup the cost of hosting the event (4.2M in total), republicans took to the slopes of Slıabh Dubh to greet Italian visitors and perhaps viewers with “Fine Dominio Britannico” (“End British Rule”), and loyalists held what the Tele describes as a “protest march”, setting off this morning at the same time as the second stage – around the Antrim coast – got under way (Parades Commission on the Ligoniel Combine).
“Welcome to our park – Whitewell says “no” to racism.” Above is a detail from a new mural by Lucas Quigley showing children of different ethnicities playing together. The children are also cross-community: the two central figures are wearing Cliftonville and Crusaders kits – two rival north Belfast teams.
The lettering has faded from this Ballyclare mural of soldier from the 36th (Ulster) Division going over the top. The scroll in the bottom right contained the familiar list of eight Somme battles: Somme, Ypres, Arras, Thiepval, St. Quentin, Grandcourt, Messines, Fricourt (featured also in Tamery Pass | At The Going Down Of The Sun and a part of the YCV flag, as in Where Youth And Laughter Go). The main panel read “Let us not forget those of our comrades who have made the supreme sacrifice. Ulster mourns them but is proud of the glory and honour they have won for the imperial province.”
The close-up above is from the ‘Andrew Murphy Memorial’ mural at the top of Grange Drive, Ballyclare, showing King Billy crossing the Boyne. (full mural below)
‘Andrew Murphy Memorial’ is a flute band from Carluke, Scotland. According to the band’s Fb page, the band was formed in 1988 and named after a member of the Carluke Orange Lodge (LOL 190). Here is video of the band parading in Belfast, at the UVF centenary celebrations last year (2013).
UVF/YCV mural in Ballyclare celebrating and commemorating soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division in WWI and in particular at the Somme. The central panel, shown above, shows soldiers bearing the Division’s standard (painted in colour in an otherwise black-and-white mural and in the style of the (US) Marines ‘Iwo Jima’ Memorial (WP)) which comprises the Union flag, harp insignia of the Royal Irish Rifles, and the red hand of Ulster on a field of shamrocks.
The other panels, shown in the full shot, below, show (clockwise from top left) uniforms of the Ulster Volunteers, a Protestant woman defending the fields (see Deserted! Well, I Can Stand Alone), soldiers going over the top, and soldiers bowed at a UVF memorial.
U.S. civil rights protester John Lewis (WP) – leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and co-organizer of the march on Washington in August, 1963 – made a visit to Dublin, Derry, and Belfast at the end of April (Newsletter | DerryCity.gov.uk). In honour of his visit, the ‘We Can Do It!” (a.k.a. “Rosie The Riveter”) figure at the left edge of the Douglass mural (under Barack Obama) on Northumberland Street was painted over and Lewis’s image – wearing the Presidential Medal Of Freedom – put in its place. For a wide-shot of the mural pre-Lewis, see Liberating Minds, which gives all of the quotes in the mural, including the quote from Abraham Lincoln that provides the title of today’s post.
Above is Friz’s 2012 B-movie mash-up on the side of Ryan’s Bar on the Lisburn Road: A fire-breathing Godzilla, a masked wrestler (from “Lucha Libre” – Mexican “free[style] wrestling”) about to hurl down an electrical cloud, an octopedal brain with bow-tie, a giant robot smashing buildings, the mad scientist and the damsel in distress. Close-ups of the robot and Godzilla’s fire, below.
Two fake vintage shopfronts in Ballyclare town centre: one showing a “village blacksmith” pausing for a moment, the other a cobbler behind the counter.
“Peacemaker, leader, visionary”. A new mural of Sınn Féın leader Gerry Adams was officially unveiled yesterday (Saturday, May 3rd, 2014), taking its place on the International Wall between the Local Volunteers mural and the current WBTA mural (and replacing the Falls Curfew mural).
The second image, below, is of the Adams piece alone. The mural was quickly painted after Adams’s arrest on Wednesday evening (April 30th) after he went for questioning about the Jean McConville case (see also: Headstone); he was released today without charge. An earlier version of the mural (completed May 2) had the word “tout” spray-painted on it on the night of May 2nd-3rd, in the location where “ar aghaıdh lınn” now appears.
A sizeable crowd turned out, as the launch served as a rally in support of Adams, featuring a statement by Martin McGuinness. As can be seen in the third image, below, of McGuinness and Martina Anderson, protesters at the unveiling/rally carried posters showing a picture of Adams with Nelson Mandela, between the words “Defend the peace process – Release Gerry Adams TD”. Video of the launch/rally from the BBC | images from the BelTel.
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 